Beyond the Cage: Awaken
by Evelyn Downs
Summary: Ren Clarkson has dreamed of a mysterious young girl and giant humanoids since the day she turned 16. Unfortunately, she learns the dreams are the only part of her life that's real. When her plane crashes on Paradis, en route to Kyoto, Japan, Ren is thrown headlong into a war, a romance, and a mission that could be the key to her identity, or the bars of her cage. Slight AU.
1. Prologue

**Hi, all! I should, obviously, have uploaded this first...but I didn't realize I wanted to write it, really, until today. So here it is-just a basic prologue. Again, this probably raises as many questions as it answers...but I hope to continue unraveling the mysteries as I go along. Of course, let me know if anything is too confusing...and as a side note, if anyone is interested in Beta-ing this, I'd really appreciate the extra perspective!**

 **Enjoy**

 _On the mainland, war rages._

 _We have abandoned the people to destroy themselves, and one another. I can not say why our king has chosen to hide away, here on this island. Perhaps, in this new capital of Eldia, things are better._

 _But I fear that is not the case._

 _The Ackerman clan is no longer able to fulfill its role as sword and shield to the king. We have fought proudly for the Eldian Fritz for generations, and it will be a great change. But our cousins from Asia are with us, in this, and I believe we have the strength necessary._

 _I fear the king has lost his way. Perhaps his vision has been clouded, corrupted by the titan he carries. Perhaps, in another man, this might be understandable—forgivable. In a man who wields such power, it is not._

 _The walls have gone up, on Paradis._

 _He calls this "true peace." He could not be further from the truth._

 _On the mainland, Marley rewrites history. Here, the Eldian king erases it. His people remember nothing from before the walls. They live a dream, a nightmare. They are the only survivors of a world consumed, overrun by titans. They will live caged until they see the truth once more._

 _This, above all, we cannot abide._

 _As warriors, it falls to us to act. As the protectors of the truth, those who remember, it falls to us to unveil the world, and awaken its people. The king will hunt us—we are the only thorns in his new, twisted garden. Already, many of my family have fled East, back to our origin country of Asia. But I, as head of the Ackerman clan, must follow the call of my duty to the end._

 _Tonight, I will attempt to kill the king._

 _Perhaps, if none other of his family survives, the chain of this madness will cease._

 _If I fail, all is not lost. The Ackerman clan will survive, as we always have. We are a strong people. We will continue, and we will remember._

 _Senji Ackerman, Head of the Ackerman Clan and Right Hand of the king_

 **Hopefully that's a good hook into the rest of the story! Sorry again that I didn't put this up first...but better late than never, I hope~! Don't forget to let me know how you feel about stuff-constructive criticism, compliments, and edits/suggestions are all very welcome.**


	2. Dreams

**Hi, everyone! Wow-it's been a while since I've posted anything to this site. But recently I rewatched Attack on Titan and got plot bunnies. So here's the first chapter of a new story. Bear with me-the first few chapters won't catch quite up to the plot, yet. Consider them an opportunity to get to know Ren, and get some insight into the weird sort of slight-AU I've got going on here.**

 **Let me know if it seems interesting to you-I'll probably continue either way, but I'm always curious to know whether anyone likes my weird ideas.**

 **Anyway-enjoy!**

The dojo was empty. It was a Saturday, close enough to sunrise that tendrils of gray gloom still clung at the corners of the room, and the trees beyond the building's open door loomed as stark silhouettes. It was the quietest time of day, before the nearby vendors of Japantown opened their stalls, while only a smattering of car doors, revved engines and the calming white noise of San Fransisco's trolly cars disrupted the muffled birdsong. The world beyond the dojo was peaceful as the city slowly woke up.

Ren Clarkson, on the other hand, was not.

She slammed her fist into the heavy padding around the dojo's center pillar, again and again. Her muscles screamed, and her fists were sore, wrapped in crisp white bandages. Her honey-blond hair fell, loose, in damp waves past her shoulders, sweat-darkened strands clinging to her neck and face. She was still in her pajamas: a white tank top and soft, blue cotton pants with little, smiling pandas happily engaged in a variety of cute activities. A stark contrast to her mood.

Her grandfather would yell at her for bad form—she was fighting like a boxer, not a martial artist. But Ren wasn't in the mood for the zen focus of Judo, or the condensed, controlled movements of Aikido, or even the intense bursts of energy she used in laido or kendo. She was frustrated, and she wanted to hit something hard, constantly, with a tirelessness that didn't leave her time to think.

So she unleashed a raw, uncontrolled tirade on the pillar, completely devoid of technique. Never mind that her her skin was covered in goosebumps from the chilly, mid-March breeze through the open door, or that she had sweated through her pajamas, or that her father and grandfather could probably feel the vibrations of her attack, asleep on the upper floor of the building. She didn't care.

Last night's dream hadn't been unusual—she'd been getting the same, gruesome nightmares for the past three years, since she was sixteen, nearly every night. Ren couldn't say what, in particular, had struck her about this one, but when she woke up at 3am to launch her attack on the defenseless dojo, she was furious. It was the random straw that broke the camel's back, and Ren had had enough.

 _The field is vast, extending to the horizon uninterrupted save for a smattering of pitiful trees. For an instant, the landscape is beautiful—lush and green, the sky crisp blue with a soft dusting of clouds. Ren blinks, and suddenly a girl stands perhaps twenty feet away, her back to a magnificent tree that wasn't there, before. It's the only one, now, that isn't dead, its branches spread wide and heavy with dark leaves._

 _The girl is small, blond hair tucked into a braid, wearing a simple colorless frock. Another blink, and she faces a monster. Huge, hunched over to reach a hand toward the girl. Face grotesque, a horrible smile across drawn cheeks, horns curling from its lumpy skull. A piece of fruit hovers at its fingertips. The girl takes it, and suddenly the whole scene is magnified as she takes a slow bite. The crunch is audible, echoes around the field until it becomes a scream._

 _Blink. The girl and the monster are gone. The field is like christmas, entirely green and red. Bodies are strewn everywhere, haphazard and so mangled as to be indistinguishable. They lay in mounds, and the smell is nausea incarnate. Rotten flesh, the hot fumes from countless spilled intestines, and something unidentifiable, sour and thick._

 _Blink again, and giants walk everywhere. Humanoid, but wrong. Features exaggerated, bloated bodies ungainly and unbalanced. Almost insulting, a mockery of humanity, stuck in expressions that seem to range the spectrum of human emotion. Each holds a human in a massive, childlike hand. As one, they turn toward the tree, suddenly directly next to where Ren stands, and raise the humans to their mouths._

 _She wakes with the crunch ringing in her ears._

Ren shook her head, flinging sweat droplets through the air, in an attempt to clear it of the dream, and pounded her fists faster, harder, until her shoulders and wrists couldn't take any more. With a guttural cry, she aimed a hard roundhouse that shook the pillar, but her fury overrode her control, and her support leg slipped in her own sweat. She landed on her butt with a huff, and didn't bother getting up. Her body was spent, even if her mind and her anger weren't.

"See what happens when you lose your focus," a gravelly voice intoned behind her. Ren turned and found an aged Japanese man standing in the doorway, hands clasped behind his back, already in his keikogi for morning practice. His face was weathered and tan, hair dark silver and tied in a short ponytail.

"Grandfather," Ren sighed and pushed herself shakily to her feet. She offered him a respectful bow, but his eyes narrowed. Sato Akkuma prided himself on his ability to read a situation's energy, and his sharp, dark eyes took in his granddaughter's haggard appearance with a thoughtful hum. Hair still mussed from sleep, pajamas dark with sweat, heavy circles beneath her dove-gray eyes and her mouth in a grim line. A pool of sweat on the floor, a stain of red across the knuckles of her right hand, a matching one in the padding around the pillar.

She noticed his gaze and self-consciously covered her right hand with her left. She hadn't noticed her knuckle had split.

"What has made you so angry?" he asked. She frowned and stuck her chin forward—an expression of stubbornness she'd possessed since she was small. Sato removed his slippers and padded toward her, his socks silent against the solid wood floor. At nineteen, Ren was an inch and a half taller than her grandfather, but could never escape the sensation that he still towered over her, as he had when she was five and knee-height. She held his eyes for a moment in silence, and then dropped her gaze to the floor with a pained expression.

"I don't know," she answered at last. Sato waited patiently for her to continue, his expression carefully neutral. She sighed heavily, frowned and started angrily unwrapping her hands. "I'm tired of these dreams."

"Dreams are important," Sato offered sagely. She glowered at him and stuck the knuckle of her right pointer finger in her mouth to keep the blood from falling on the floor. It tasted salty, with a tang of copper. Blood and sweat—a flavor she wasn't unfamiliar with.

"I get that, grandfather," she said, pulling her hand away from her mouth. "Really, I do. But these don't make any sense! The same thing, over and over. And I'm tired because I don't think I've had a single full-night's sleep in three years." She sounded like a child throwing a tantrum. She could hear the whine in her voice, and she could see it in the patient, knowing expression on her grandfather's face. It didn't make her feel any better. Ren let her back lean against the pillar and slid to the floor, un-bloodied hand pushing strands of hair out of her face.

"That it is the same proves all the more that it is important," Sato said gently and knelt beside Ren. "It is the world's way of telling you to remember."

"Remember what?" Ren asked. "They don't tell me anything…they show me a little girl, and a whole lot of blood and monsters. How can that be something I'm supposed to remember?" Finally, a hint of fear trembled in her voice. Sato met her wide eyes unflinchingly.

"You're angry because you're afraid, you're tired, and you don't understand," he clarified for her. Ren nodded miserably. He closed his eyes, and hardened his heart. He had watched Ren grow up since she was first created; her small, pale face and large, dawn-gray eyes pulled at his heart-strings, every bit as pitiable as when she was a toddler. But his feelings for the girl did not change his responsibilities, and he could not explain her dreams for her, however much he would wish to lift her burdens. All he could do was prepare her, as much as possible, within the shelter of her ignorance. His eyes rested, once more, on the blood that seeped from her knuckle. Not yet, he thought, with a mixture of relief and trepidation. He wondered how much longer she had.

"I am afraid," Ren admitted, breaking through his thoughts. "The dreams are awful." His gaze rose, not quite guiltily, back to her face.

"Fear is something that will follow you throughout your life." Sato reached a weathered hand forward and placed it on her golden head. "Uncertainty, confusion…anger. They can be tools," he said. "You must learn to harness them before they harness you." Ren gave her grandfather a wry look, one eyebrow raised.

"That doesn't make me feel better, grandfather," she said, dead pan. He shook his head.

"It isn't meant to," he responded. "It's meant to prepare you." She scoffed.

"For what?"

"Life." She rolled her eyes, but he appeared completely serious. "You will need your strength soon—strength of mind, strength of heart and strength of will."

"You make it sound like I'm going to face some horrible trials," Ren commented, offhand. Sato wished he could make his warning clear enough that she would take it seriously. Instead, he rose from the floor and gestured with one hand for her to follow.

"You will also need strength of body," he said, all business now. Ren groaned—of course he wouldn't let her off the hook, despite her bloodied hand and the tremor of exhaustion in her muscles.

"I'll get changed," she muttered and turned toward the door at the back of the dojo, which hid the stairs to the upper floor. He shook his head.

"No time," he said, and Ren caught a glimmer of humor in his eyes. "The morning's class will arrive in thirty minutes, and you have not done your exercises." Ren groaned again, louder. Her punishment, for allowing her emotions to get the better of her: she would go through exercises with him, and then teach a class of fifth graders, all in her sweat-soaked, panda-print pajamas.

 **So yes, before you ask, this has started in a world rather like ours-pretty modern, definitely not in keeping with the SnK setting. But don't worry-we'll get there, and I'll explain everything the longer this goes.**


	3. Lies

**Two chapters right off the bat-because these are what I have, and I figured you needed this much to be able to get a feel for the plot. From here on, I'll try to update on Fridays, barring unusual circumstances. Without further ado, Chapter 2:**

It was Jackson Finch, the tallest and most troublesome boy in her class, that called her attention to the blood dripping onto the floor by her feet.

"Sensei," he said, one finger thrust out to point at her face. "You have a nosebleed." Shocked, Ren stared at the boy for a moment, trying to discern if he was pulling a prank. But as she turned her attention to herself, her nose burned and felt clogged, sticky. She licked her lips, and tasted copper.

It was Sarah Kenny who noticed that the blood was steaming.

Standing toward the front of the formation of children, she pointed at the droplets on the floor and let out a light squeal.

"Sensei, what's wrong with your blood?" she asked, squeamish. Ren's gaze lowered and one hand rose to catch the blood in her palm. It was _hot_. Normally blood was warmer than the room, but this, she knew, was abnormal. Her eyes landed on the congealing splotch of red at her feet. Sure enough, a thin, nearly imperceptible line of steam curled up from each droplet. Her eyes widened, and she felt her heart rate speed up—which, of course, only accelerated the flow of blood down her face.

"Okay class," she said, voice muffled by her hand and slightly shaky. "Continue your stretches, please. I'll be back soon." She tried to sound calm, put on a front for the children, but her mind whirled with panic and made it hard to think. With a last look at the blood on the floor, she dashed to the back of the dojo and up the stairs.

She hadn't made it half way when she doubled over, a strangled sound escaping her lips. It felt as though she'd been hit in the temple with an axe, so sharp was the pain that suddenly lanced through her skull. She instinctively used both hands to clutch at her head. Her fingers trailed blood through her hair, and her uncovered nose quickly splattered the stairs with blood. Images from her dreams flickered through the darkness behind her eyelids, out of order and alarmingly vivid.

What's happening to me?! Ren's eyes flew open, a desperate attempt to halt the flow of images, and landed instead on the blood on the stairs. It, too, produced a veil of steam.

She was going to be sick. Or she was going to pass out. Whichever, there had to be a release. The sudden onslaught of the afflictions, and the panic and confusion they induced, was too much for Ren's system to handle. Bleary, her eyes rose to the door at the top of the stairway and settled on the doorknob. It took every ounce of her willpower to focus on the old-fashioned brass and rise back to her feet. She couldn't pass out on the stairs, or she would suffer a head trauma on top of everything else.

"Dad!" she called, her voice less a yell than a strained plea. She staggered up the stairs, and the impact of each step seemed to drive the knife further into her brain. "Grandfather!" A little louder this time. It took effort, a push from her lungs as they tried to hyperventilate, but it was worth it. Only a moment later, Dr. Adam Clarkson opened the door, blond hair askew and a mug of coffee in his hand. His bright blue eyes landed on Ren and widened. He called over his shoulder for Sato, and started down the remaining few stairs to his daughter.

Her vision was hazy and rimmed with darkness, but Ren thought numbly that her father didn't look nearly as shocked or alarmed as he should have to discover his daughter collapsed on the stairs with steaming blood spewing from both nostrils. Her grandfather appeared over his shoulder, and he looked even less surprised—in fact, Ren had become exceptional at reading Sato's minute tells, and his stoic expression betrayed no hint of surprise, at all.

But Ren barely had time to register these oddities in her conscious mind before she felt her chin hit the corner of a stair and the world faded to black.

Ren fully expected to wake up in a hospital room, and before she opened her eyes, she geared herself up for the harsh, florescent lights and stark white walls. She even imagined she heard the steady, incessant beep of medical machines. So when at last she opened her eyes to find herself on her own bedroll, surrounded by the saffron walls of her room, it was distinctly disorienting.

It was quiet, afternoon sunlight filtered through the window across the room, and her cat-shaped clock ticked with a comforting, predictable rhythm from the desk in the corner. Ren thought she was alone until she cautiously sat up, bunching her blanket around her waist, and found her father sitting on her large floor pillow near her feet. When she moved, he perked up from a light doze.

"Ren," he breathed, his face slack with relief. He got up and walked to kneel beside her, placing the back of his hand against her forehead. "How do you feel?"

"A little shaky," Ren admitted. It was an understatement. Her whole body ached, her head throbbed with her erratic pulse and she felt too hot, all over.

"You're still warm," he commented, and pushed himself to his feet.

"Dad," Ren croaked, a frown of confusion on her face. "Shouldn't I be in the hospital or something?" She wasn't sure what had happened to her, but it was certainly both extreme and abnormal. At least, she had never seen anyone's blood literally boil before.

Ren searched her father's face as his scowl deepened. His blue eyes were unreadable and he looked away. He seemed…almost guilty. Her heart thudded and her eyes narrowed. "Dad," she said again, voice suspicious. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"I'm calling your grandfather up," he said, and disappeared through the paper door without waiting for Ren's reaction. She stared after him. He'd been the same when she first collapsed: only mildly surprised, not very concerned. He was a doctor—did he know something she didn't? He had always made a point of conducting Ren's check-ups himself. Ren hadn't even been to see another doctor until she was fifteen and went to a gynecologist. She'd always assumed it was because he didn't want to pay extra money when he was already qualified as a doctor…but was there some other reason? She went very still, goosebumps on her skin as her mind filtered through a dozen possibilities—rare diseases, horrible conditions she could have.

When the door slid open, she jumped. Her father walked in, followed by her grandfather, who carried a tray laden with a steaming bowl and mug. Wordless, he sat the tray on the floor beside Ren, and then kneeled a few feet away. Her father returned to her desk chair—he'd never grown accustomed to the Japanese layout of their furniture.

Ren took a careful, measured sip from the steaming bowl. Miso soup. She could feel its warmth, rich and revitalizing, spread through to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her stomach clenched painfully, and Ren realized suddenly that she was ravenous. All thoughts of her father and grandfather, their unusual behavior, and even the aches and pains of her body were pushed to the side as Ren lifted the bowl back and drained its contents.

When she had licked her lips clean of the briny soup, Ren refocused her attention on the current situation. She leveled first her father, and then her grandfather with a hard stare. Then she carefully lifted her right hand, where a thin scab had formed over her split knuckle. Under her father's muffled protest, she picked off the scab, and blood slowly seeped to the surface. Ren glowered through the steam at her guardians.

"Are either of you going to explain this to me?" she asked, voice hard. Her father cast his blue eyes to the floor, clearly guilty. Her grandfather, on the other hand, allowed his gaze to rest poignantly on her fist. Sato sighed heavily through his nose. _It's three years late,_ he observed. He had expected this development when Ren started having dreams at sixteen. _Better late than not at all._

"Ren," he said. "You have Akkuma blood." Ren stared at him, fully expecting him to continue. When he didn't, she scoffed.

"I know that," she argued. "So do you—so did mom. As far as I know, neither of you _steamed_ because of it _._ " Despite her best efforts to contain her budding anger, it seeped into her voice. Ren couldn't remember her mother—Yuki Akkuma had barely waited for her blond, mixed-race daughter to turn three before returning to Kyoto, Japan. But Ren had seen Sato's blood often enough in the dojo that she was confident in her statement. Her grandfather nodded affirmation.

"No," he agreed. "But that does not change the fact that this blood," he reached a hand over to clasp her knuckles. "This blood is Akkuma—we have been waiting for it to show itself." Ren sat back, and a small huff of surprise escaped her lungs.

"What does that mean?" she asked, bland. Her father sighed and, at last, met her gaze.

"We can't tell you much," he said, and Ren could hear the apology in his voice. It didn't soothe her anger.

"You can," she argued, "and you will. You can't leave me in the dark about this—whatever's wrong with me, I deserve to know!"

"Nothing is wrong with you," he assured her, hands raised. "You…well, you'll come to understand that all of this is a good thing. It's on purpose—we expected it to take hold when you were sixteen and you got the dreams, but—" Ren stared at him, such shock and betrayal in her face that Dr. Clarkson deflated and his words lost steam. There had been, for a moment, such a light in his blue eyes—something excited, the way he looked when he'd made a breakthrough at the hospital. In this context, it disgusted Ren, and she drew her hand sharply from her grandfather's grasp.

"You knew about the dreams all along," she breathed, and looked at Sato. "Even this morning…" Her grandfather nodded, face as unapologetic as ever.

"Our family—the Akkuma family—has a stake in a battle that has raged for the better part of the millennium," he said quietly, dark eyes locked with Ren's. "This branch removed itself from the confrontation, but only so that we could create countermeasures. One, in particular." He sighed and looked away, using one hand to wipe tiredly at his brow. "That countermeasure is you."

"Ren, you were _designed_ ," her father agreed, the light back in his face. She blanched.

"Are you saying I was a test-tube baby?" She meant it half as a joke, but her voice came out strained and afraid. Her stomach dropped when he nodded.

"The blend of your mother's Akkuma blood, and mine. I took the name Clarkson when I left Eldia to begin this project…but my true family name is Fritz; I was fourth in line for the Eldian throne before I abdicated." Ren blanched. Was he trying to say he was royalty? Where the hell was Eldia? Did that mean her last name was Fritz, too? Or was Akkuma more appropriate, now? She supposed Ren Clarkson had never existed to begin with…

"What does that make me?" she asked softly.

"You're still our child," her father answered. "But you're also the perfect combination of the two bloodlines. We picked the most important, valuable traits of each, so that you can complete your mission without fail," Adam Fritz continued, gaze softening. He'd never thought of Ren as anything less than his daughter—could see himself in her thick, blond hair, and her habit of sticking her chin forward in stubbornness, especially when she fought tears.

Ren turned away from him and stared at the floor. The throbbing in her head was worse, and for a moment the room spun. She was a test-tube baby…no, worse than that. She was created in a lab, her genes manipulated for a predetermined outcome. They had picked the best traits…what about her blond hair? Her gray, slanted eyes or her short stature? Had they picked those, or left some things to be accidents? At least her parents were actually, biologically hers…sort of. But she hadn't been born out of love, or into a family. She was a manufactured weapon. She turned to her grandfather.

"So what you said in the dojo this morning, all that about preparation and strength…you were serious. You were talking about this."

"Yes." He nodded. "Ren…you have an important destiny. The world we come from, this family, needs your help, and your strength." There was something in his face, something ardent and urgent, with a spark of desperation Ren had never seen in him before. She felt weak with the pain of their betrayal, still so angry she could punch her "father" in the nose. But as she thought, processed, she remembered the past nineteen years of her life, as though she watched the movie of someone else's. All the times she had felt adrift, with no sense of purpose, martial arts her only real identity. All the days she'd wandered aimlessly through life, nights she'd listened to her college friends talk about their dreams, and realized she didn't have any.

Perhaps it really was this she was meant to do, all along.

Sato watched the struggle across Ren's face. Her stormy eyes seemed to flicker across the floor, looking at nothing in particular, face slack from her series of shocks, and still so pale from the episode that had started everything. Her blond hair was dark, traces of blood still coating a few strands, and she seemed so small, so terribly young, in her father's overlarge t-shirt. His heart clenched—it was so much to take in, all at once. But they were three years behind schedule, and he couldn't afford to coddle his granddaughter. Worse, there was far more to come.

At last, Ren sighed heavily, and the anger left her, replaced by a strange mixture of intense loss and budding curiosity. Maybe even, if she was honest, a touch of excitement. She looked up and gazed between her father's anxious blue eyes and her grandfather's calm dark ones.

"So, what is this mission?"

 **So there you have it-the first major chunk of the story. I know there are lots of mysterious holes in the background, but they will come out in due time! Please let me know if anything really doesn't make sense; I've made this perhaps more complicated than I should have, so I'm anxious to make sure my writing is clear...or at least moderately understandable. Stay tuned for the next chapter-within the next two, the Survey Corps should make their appearance.**


	4. Questions

**Hi, everyone! So, I consider this my Friday post, even though I already posted the Prologue today. This chapter was actually really hard for me to write...it went off in a sort of unexpected direction, so I hope things still feel like they flow correctly.**

 **I know you guys are probably getting anxious about when the main cast will make its appearance-rest assured, I intend for them to show up next chapter! In the mean time, I hope you like Akiko-she sort of sprung into existence on her own. Meant to be a throw away, one-line character, but I thought she was a pretty interesting companion for Ren, so she stuck around.**

 **Anyway, on to the event. Enjoy!**

Ren pressed her forehead against the cold, plexiglass window and tried to focus on the vast, open ocean. It stretched, endless, beneath them, gentle morning light reflecting off its glassy surface. Each fluffy cloud left a dark, gliding shadow. Deceptive. Ren knew from a childhood spent on the bay that the waves only looked calm, with churning currents and an abyss of blue and black beneath.

She could relate.

Ren had butterflies so intense she couldn't even drink her ginger ale, and it was only half because it was her first time on a plane. In her lap, she clutched a worn, leather-bound journal in both hands, and her fingers left, faint damp impressions on the cover. _Don't read this until you're half-way there,_ her grandfather had instructed. _It will tell you what you must know to begin._ Begin what, she still had no idea.

When she had recovered enough to get back to the dojo, Sato had cancelled all of Ren's classes for the week and announced, in no uncertain terms, that she would travel to Kyoto, Japan and meet the rest of the Akkuma clan. Her father had wanted to come with her, but her grandfather had adamantly refused.

"She must go alone," he explained. "We have done all we can to prepare her." He turned to Ren and put both hands on her shoulders. "You have armed yourself well, Ren. You are strong of body and strong of heart. It is for the Akkuma, now, to strengthen your will, and your mind."

"What do you mean?" Ren had complained. "You haven't even explained anything…" She had asked, again and again, what her mysterious mission was, and the answer was always the same.

"The Akkuma will arm you with the knowledge you will need," her grandfather said. Ren thought it was probably the most vague, irritating answer he could give.

Sitting on the plane, Ren pulled her head away from the window to stare forward at the little screen, near the front of the cabin, that explained their progress. They'd been in the air for five hours, with about six to go. Not quite half way…but close enough. She looked down at the book in her lap, and with her heart in her throat, she slowly opened the cover.

The first page was blank accept for a small, ink drawing in the corner. It was a little girl, beside a tree, and a monster. Ren couldn't stop a small cry from escaping her lips, and the elderly Japanese woman from the seat ahead of her made a point to turn around and glare. Ren apologized—the woman hadn't seemed to like her from the start, and Ren suspected it had more to do with her blond hair than her actions—and turned the page.

The writing was fluid cursive, beautiful penmanship, on thick, yellowed paper. It took a moment for Ren's eyes to adjust to the flow of the words, and she realized they were written in a language she'd never seen before. Her grandfather, a stickler for languages, had diligently schooled Ren in Latin, German and Japanese all her life. This looked like none of those…but there was a Japanese translation scrawled down the side of the page in hurried penmanship.

 _We remember._

 _What the Eldian people would erase, and the Marleyan people would rewrite, the Ackerman clan—the Akkuma—will always remember._

Ren felt a chill go up her spine. They were the only words on the page—a promise, a foreword, to set the tone of the tale to follow. Intrigued, she flipped through the book. It seemed the entire tomb was written in the same, unknown language as the first page, and Ren noticed that only some of it was translated. Finally, she ended up on the back cover, and found another short segment, translated this time into English. Ren stared at it for a long moment, eyes wide.

It was her father's handwriting.

 _Marley has disbanded, their people scattered across the Western continent._

 _The Eldians have maintained a strong bloodline in Germany…as a pure-blood Fritz, it is my duty to find them. I will not._

 _I have joined with the Akkuma—the Ackerman and Asian clans. We will fight against both sides; neither the Marley nor the Eldian can inherit, or the world is lost._

 _—Adam Fritz, Fourth Heir to the Coordinator._

She read the paragraph over three times, then sat back in her seat with an irritated frown and a heavy sigh. All the text seemed to do was leave Ren with more questions, more confusion. There were too many things she didn't understand—the Eldians, the Marleyans…the Coordinator, a mysterious inheritance. And hanging over the whole thing, a threat against the entire world.

She was beginning to suspect she had signed up for more than she could handle with this "mission."

"What's that?" Startled by the chipper voice, Ren glanced to her left. Her seat mate, a small, Japanese girl of no more than fifteen, leaned across the armrest to peer at the journal. Her english was heavily accented.

"A journal," she answered at last, in fluent Japanese. The girl's onyx eyes met Ren's, surprise politely masked.

"You speak Japanese?" she asked, clearly more comfortable in her native language. Ren nodded.

"My grandfather made sure of it."

"But you are American..?" The girl seemed only half-interested in the question as her gaze reverted to the journal. "It looks very old…" she muttered. Ren nodded.

"I think it probably is," she said. "And yes, I'm American. But I'm half-Japanese, too. And it's good I know Japanese, or I couldn't read this. Look." She held the journal out to the girl, who took it shyly, excitement on her face when she saw the translated sections. Ren smiled. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Akiko," the girl answered, without looking up from the pages. Her thin fingers turned them delicately, eyes scanning the pages both with and without Japanese. "I'm visiting my parents in Tokyo for spring break."

"Your parents?" Ren tried to mask her surprise. "But aren't you from San Francisco?" The girl nodded.

"I live with my aunt," she explained. "Because my mom is going through some stuff, and she can't deal with a kid right now." The words were harsh, and Ren wondered who Akiko was quoting. At least the girl didn't seem that upset, as she carefully closed the journal and handed it back to Ren with a smile.

"Thanks." Ren placed the book back in her lap. "I'm Ren."

"It's pretty unusual to see a Japanese girl with naturally light hair and eyes like you," Akiko commented innocently. "You might get made fun of in Tokyo." Ren laughed.

"I'm not worried," she said. "Besides, I'm not stopping in Tokyo. I'm visiting family in Kyoto." To Ren's surprise, the girl's eyes widened, and then narrowed.

"What's your last name?" she asked. Startled by the seemingly random question, Ren blinked.

"Clarkson," she answered, but then she drew up short. She had to let go of that name—it was a lie. With a sigh, she shook her head. "Akkuma," she amended. Akiko's eyes went wide again, and she scooted a bit away from Ren.

"You're joking, right?" she asked. Ren mutely shook her head, and Akiko scoffed at the confusion on her face. "You do know your family is a huge gang, right?"

"Gang?" Ren frowned. "They aren't a gang—they run a shrine," she argued. At least, that's what her grandfather had told her. Supposedly the Akkuma clan, though all accomplished martial artists, had settled to run a shrine in southern Kyoto, living a quiet life. But Akiko shook her head.

"They do run a shrine, but rumor is that it's a cover." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Some people even say they work with demons. That's why they go by Akkuma." Ren nodded slowly. She had drawn the connection, herself, between her true last name, and the Japanese word for demon, akuma.

"That doesn't mean they're a gang," she tried to argue patiently. Akiko ignored her.

"They are a huge family, now, and a branch has even started up in Tokyo. I've heard my parents talking about them, because they're starting to get a political following. They're gaining some power, I guess. Some of them are totally normal—you know, average appearance, decent day jobs, not that scary. But some of them…" she looked straight into Ren's face, her own completely serious in a naive way that would have been cute if Ren wasn't so alarmed.

"What?" Ren prompted, her own voice lowered to a whisper to match Akiko's intensity.

"Well, some of them are like you—mixed race, or something. I've never heard of a blond, they all have the right coloring…but there's something different about them, you know?" Ren nodded, and tried to ignore the slight insult to her coloring. "They're the scary ones." Akiko finished and sat back in her seat, giving Ren a suspicious look. Ren raised both hands.

"Hey, I didn't know about any of this," she said. "I've never even been to Japan." At that, Akiko looked surprised.

"Really? Well, I guess might not have known, then…but you're family, so it's weird no one told you." Ren couldn't help but agree. _Thanks for the heads up, grandfather,_ she thought bitterly. For a moment, both girls were quiet, Ren lost in thought while Akiko watched her intently.

"This is going to be an interesting trip," Ren said at last. Akiko pointed to the journal.

"So where does that come in?" she asked.

"What makes you think it's involved?" Ren arched one eyebrow, but Akiko scoffed.

"I saw the name Akkuma in there—I assumed it was a misspelling, or something, since the book is totally about demons." Her matter-of-fact statement caused Ren to stare back down at the journal.

"You think so?" She asked. Akiko rolled her eyes.

"Obviously!" she said, and reached over to open the front cover and point at the ink drawing. Ren smiled a little at how quickly the girl had opened up. "That is clearly a demon, giving something bad to a human girl." Ren shrugged—Akiko wasn't wrong.

"The journal belonged to my grandfather…but I have a feeling it's been passed through other Akkumas for a while." Ren murmured. Akiko glanced sharply between Ren's face and the book.

"Somehow, if I were you," she said quietly. "I don't think I'd want to read it." Something in her voice sounded odd, hollow almost, and Ren stared into the girl's face. Akiko's eyes were somber beneath her slight frown, and she focused on the journal. She looked almost afraid, and suddenly, Ren felt the thrum of fear in her own veins. After all, she suspected that she was about to become embroiled in a whole mess of things, and Akiko's tip about the Akkuma gang was just the tip of the iceberg.

Ren opened her mouth to ask Akiko more about the Akkuma clan, but the girl's eyes suddenly flew to the window and stretched wide. She leaned forward, one hand on Ren's arm and the other pointing down toward the ocean.

"What?" Ren exclaimed at the sudden movement.

"What is that?" Akiko asked, breathless. "We've never flown over an island coming this way, before!" _An island?_ Ren shook her head.

"There can't be an island," she said. "The only island we would ever pass is Hawai'i, and that's pretty far south…" Ren shut her mouth.

Sure enough, almost directly below them stretched a huge island. Easily the size of Hawai'i's largest island, if not significantly bigger. Ren found herself pressed to the window right beside Akiko.

"I told you!" Akiko said, excited. "It's a new island!" Ren shook her head, a frown already on her face.

"Can't be new…" she murmured, as much to herself as to Akiko. "An island this big doesn't just appear out of nowhere. And it's impossible no one's noticed it…" As she trailed off, Ren felt Akiko stiffen next to her, alarm on her face. Only a moment later, a flash of green caught the corner of Ren's eye. She looked in its direction, and froze, her veins icy with terror.

The first thing Ren thought was that she must be hallucinating or something. Technology couldn't make walls like that…it was too huge.

The second thing she thought was that she had fallen asleep, because the giant, humanoid thing that towered toward the plane couldn't be real. It was so like the horrible giants from Ren's dreams…and yet, none of them had seemed this tall, and they had all had skin…

"Do you see it, too?" Akiko's voice was small, barely more than a trembling whisper, and her small hand tightened around Ren's arm. Ren nodded stiffly.

"I see it," she breathed.

"What is it?" Ren heard a whimper in Akiko's voice, and turned to find that the girl's face was slack with panic. Ren removed the girl's hand from her arm and took it in her own.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But I think—" Unfortunately, Ren never got to voice her thought. At that moment, the plane dropped so violently that she and Akiko, neither of them wearing their seat belts, were thrown into the air. Ren smacked her head against the ceiling of the plane, and narrowly managed to catch Akiko before the smaller girl was flung into the aisle. The cabin exploded in shouts, screams, a fast-paced cacophony of questions.

"What?!" Akiko gasped. Ren shook her head, and shoved the girl into her seat.

"Seat belt," she grunted, and helped Akiko strap the buckle down over her waist. Ren followed suit, and just in time. The plane shook violently again, so abruptly that Ren hadn't shut her mouth yet, and she bit her tongue, hard. She raised a hand to her mouth, and her gaze flickered intently around the cabin. She felt dizzy…nauseous. Ren wasn't prone to motion sickness.

 _We're tilting!_ The moment hit like a rock in the pit of her stomach as Ren turned back to the window. Sure enough, the island outside appeared at a severe angle, and Ren felt her stomach flop. The screaming in the cabin intensified, and Ren noticed that Akiko had gone deathly pale.

"We're crashing," the young girl muttered, shocked. Ren opened her mouth to assure her they would be fine, only to snap it closed again. Akiko was right—they were crashing. There was no guarantee that any of them would be alright. Ren felt her mind whirl, dissolving into panicked chaos. Planes didn't crash anymore—not really. They had controlled landings. But when they did crash—as theirs was, now—the survivors were few and far between.

They were going down. And it was highly likely that none of them would survive.

 **I think this was a little longer than my previous chapters. To be honest, I can't really vouch for whether or not they will all be of similar length-I'm not so great at moderating that. But I can try to be better about that in the future. As always, reviews and comments are much appreciated! Though, again, I think I'm writing this as much for myself as for you guys, so feel free to just sit back and enjoy the story, no feedback required ;)**


	5. Force

**Okay...I know I said Fridays, but I just get too excited when I finish a chapter! So here's this one, on a Saturday. But it should even out eventually, since I plan to schedule a different fic for Saturdays ;) Anyway-enjoy this first glimpse into the Survey Corps! Let me know if anyone (especially Levi) seems too absurdly ooc or something. He's hard to write!**

 **Enjoy**

For a moment, Ren couldn't think. Her mind was white, her hands gripped the arm rests until her knuckles blanched, and a scream rose to the back of her throat. _I didn't accomplish anything…_ she thought numbly. All she'd ever done with her life was martial arts, with a half-hearted study of history and chemistry on the side. It seemed too cruel that right when she discovered some grand mission, she would die…

She would never learn about the Akkuma clan, never discover why she was created…never learn the rest of the wild history she had glimpsed in the worn, journal, thrown to the floor in the turbulence. Never be able to ask her father _why,_ or beat her grandfather in a kendo match…

She looked again at Akiko. The girl was crying, a look of utter hopelessness on her face. She was only fifteen; she was traveling to see her parents. Ren had only spoken with her for thirty minutes, at most, but already she thought of the girl fondly. And it was her face that stuck in Ren's mind when she clamped down on her panic.

 _I can't afford to lose it!_ All at once, it was as though her body simply stilled. Her mind cleared, her gaze scanned the cabin not in terror, but with purpose. Her hands stopped shaking, and all at once, she was in full control of her faculties. She would survive this plane crash. She would make sure Akiko did, as well.

"Here," Ren said, gruff, as she reached below Akiko's seat to grab the life vest hidden there. She dragged it over the girl's head as Akiko sat, still as a doll, and stared uncomprehendingly into Ren's face. "We're probably going to land in the water," she continued, all business, as she stared around them at the panicking passengers. The luggage had come loose from the overhead compartments, and tumbled throughout the cabin. With a grimace, Ren undid Akiko's seat belt and had them switch seats. She was older, larger, and far strong—better able to weather a falling suitcase than the shocked girl beside her.

"I'm going to die…" the words were soft, Ren wouldn't have heard them over the chaos of the cabin if she hadn't been paying such close attention to Akiko. She reached forward and took the girl by both shoulders, giving her a hard shake.

"You're not," she said firmly. "We're not. We'll land in water, and we're in the tail of the plane, so we're about the safest people here. When we hit, we're going to make a break for that door." She pointed behind them, at the emergency exit furthest back in the plane. A bit of light returned to Akiko's stricken face, and her teary gaze met Ren's earnest, intense one.

"Okay…" she mumbled. Ren offered a wane smile, only to tumble forward into the smaller girl as a hard-shell suitcase slammed into her back, between her shoulder blades. Ren released a grunt, and shoved it away. As she turned, she caught the motion of a second suitcase as it slammed into the Japanese woman from the seat ahead. She'd stood in the aisle, and someone's luggage slammed into the side of her head. She fell. Nearby, a mother held her two children on her lap in the middle aisle while the father braced himself on the seats to shield them. All around, people screamed, cried, struggled. Some were alone, some had family to defend.

Ren gritted her teeth, and refused to think about how many of them were going to die.

 _Not me,_ she thought. _Not us._ She gripped Akiko's shoulder firmly with one hand as they continued to spiral down. Ren's stomach flipped as she looked out the window, and her eyes widened as her frown deepened. It wasn't blue that rushed up to meet them, but vast, bright green. _We're not landing in water!_

With the thought, Ren leapt into action. She didn't bother removing the life vest from herself or Akiko—no time. Instead, she pulled Akiko after her into the aisle.

The plane had gone nose-down, and it was a struggle to fight the pull of gravity and the centripetal force of their dizzy, nausea-inducing spiral. But Ren used the now-slanted rows of seats as footholds and steadily dragged Akiko with her toward the tail of the plane. She narrowly avoided being squashed as one of the food carts careened toward them, and both girls ducked into the seats as it hurtled past them with a crash and a shrill scream.

"Don't turn around," Ren told Akiko harshly. The girl swallowed, but nodded. It would do neither of them any good to think about the dead. Instead, they continued their climb.

They had made it to the cabin bathroom when the plane hit the ground. Akiko screamed. Ren pulled the girl to her, sequestered the both of them in the bathroom, and covered her ears against the loud, haunting chorus of screams and explosions.

ΩΩ

The troops were exhausted. They'd been beyond the wall for almost a month, had lost nearly a third of their party, and they still had a long way to go before they would be considered safe.

Levi glanced behind him, where his squad rode hard, faces grim and stressed. Being beyond the walls took a toll that went beyond physical exhaustion; it frayed frayed nerves and wore a soldier down with constant, suppressed fear. It eroded a person's confidence and morality to watch comrades be eaten alive, knowing nothing could be done and regretting every decision, anyway. Add in the lack of sleep, as a side effect, and they were running on grit and willpower alone. Never mind that titans were supposedly dormant in the dark.

Levi had long realized that when it came to titans, nothing was impossible.

"I can see the walls!" The shout didn't come from his squad, but from an over-excited youth off to the right flank. Levi cut his gaze to the ash-blond boy, who pointed from horseback with an elated smile on his face.

"Idiot," he muttered. This was exactly why he couldn't stand rookies. The boy's stance had already relaxed, every line on his body announcing that his guard was down. To top it off, he'd yelled so loudly…

"Titan!" Levi was unsurprised when, mere moments later, a red flare fired to the right, accompanied by a warning shout. The fool had drawn attention.

Despite their human appearance, titans relied on sound and mostly smell to find humans; their sight wasn't that great, especially at a distance. A careless shout could mean the difference between slipping by unseen, and catching a titan's ear.

"Shit." Levi heard the growled curse from Oluo, behind him. He glanced back.

"Petra, the flare," he commanded.

"Sir!" A sharp whistle accompanied the pillar of thick, red smoke that towered into the sky, eerily like a scream. A series of stomps announced the titan's presence moments before it came into view. _10 meter class,_ Levi noted with a glance. _Disgusting_.

Everything about titans seemed targeted to insult. The grotesque faces, the bloated stomachs and flailing limbs, and the horribly hot, steaming blood. That such an unbalanced and inefficient creature could so easily decimate humankind, Levi found both offensive and endlessly frustrating.

If he ever felt passion for anything, anymore, it was in his unadulterated loathing for titans.

"Looks like the rear guard has this covered," Erd commented from where he rode at right point in their small formation. Levi nodded, observed the small figures whirling about the approaching monster, and spurred his horse onward.

"Stay the course." He grimaced and turned his back on the fighting soldiers. Against the titans, all humans ever seemed to look like were flies.

The ground shuddered, and no matter his jadedness, Levi couldn't suppress a small, triumphant grin. He glanced over his shoulder at his soldier's faces, mirrors of his own. Past them, the mound of a fallen titan.

Unfortunately, Levi's smiles never lasted long, and this one was no different.

As he faced forward once again, he heard a gasp from Petra. It only took a moment for him to see why: A blazing trail of fire and black smoke arched across the sky—far too massive and distant to be a canon, or any other weapon Levi could think of. What left a mark like that? It took all his discipline to keep his horse running as his steel eyes tracked the object's path.

The trail ended, abruptly, at the horizon, with a crash so loud Levi could hear it from where he watched, easily 80 to 100 kilometers away.

"Captain," Oluo breathed. Levi clicked his tongue. _This is all we need,_ he thought.

"Gunther," he commanded, voice even and cool as ever. "Hold course; I'm going to rendezvous with Erwin." He didn't wait for a reply, but wheeled his horse away and to the left, toward the center of the Corps' formation. Ordinarily, he made a point to stay with his squad. But there were times when the situation was so singular or dramatic that flares and messengers wouldn't cut it. This was one of those rare moments, and Levi had to speak to his Commander, himself.

Erwin was near the center of the second row from the front, and didn't seem surprised to spot Levi galloping toward him.

"You saw it?" he asked simply with a glance at Levi.

"Yeah."

"And?" Erwin watched Levi's face darken, sharp eyes narrow.

"I've never seen anything like it," he said honestly. He stared forward, resolute. "What do you want to do?" Erwin paused, thinking, and Levi waited silently. He had decided long ago to trust this man; that decision applied more than ever when new, unforeseen circumstances imposed themselves.

"How are they?" Erwin asked. Levi knew he meant their troops. He thought of Petra's dull amber eyes, the deep lines around Auruo's mouth and the tense frown that seemed a permanent fixture on Erd's brow.

"They'll manage," he answered. They would—he'd seen them through worse.

"We're going after it, then," Erwin declared.

"Yahoo!" Hanji, who had ridden up to the other side of Erwin, threw her hands up in excitement. Levi curled a lip at her enthusiasm, but remained silent, unsurprised. Their expedition had been meant to last far longer than a month, and from the looks of it, they would only add a week or two in the ride to and from the landing site. Still, he moved his gaze from Hanji and back to Erwin's face.

"I have a bad feeling," he said. Erwin nodded.

"As do I." No more had to be said, and Levi left to rejoin his squad as Erwin fired a green flare in the direction of where a massive pillar of smoke rose to blot the sky.

No one spoke as Levi caught up with his elite scouts and seamlessly altered their course; none of them were happy about the development, but they were too disciplined to complain. And they trusted him. Levi clenched his jaw. For all they knew, that smoke was just another goddamn thing in this world to kill humans; another mystery.

Levi's scowl deepened. He really hated surprises.

 **Well there you have it. Chapter four, and the final introduction of the survey corps. Next chapter, Ren will get to meet them-and what an explosion I'm sure that will be! Levi's not the most tolerant of folks, haha. Anyway, stay tuned! And again, if anyone wants to Beta-for grammar, and just to spot-check my logic in this fic-I'd be grateful for the assistance.**


	6. Ace

**Hi again, everyone! This chapter, I think, is the longest yet. Definitely a bit of a non sequitur, as well. But this reveals some rather important information...and another OC! Yay! Haha-I have way too much fun coming up with these guys and throwing them at Paradis...**

 **Anyway, enjoy the update!**

The council was restless. It had been ten years since last they had gathered, spread as they were across the continent of Japan, and tension hovered thick in the incense-heavy air.

Yuki Akkuma raked her obsidian gaze over the elders where they sat in a circle, ancient knees on bright-colored floor cushions against the hardwood floor. Her own seat was no different, a red pad beneath her folded knees, her hands calmly resting on her lap. The ceremonial kimono she wore was the deep red of the Akkuma clan, with their sigil hidden on the back: a combination of the Asian and Ackerman marks, as a testament to their families' merging nearly a century ago.

She was a commanding presence—a small woman by any standard, with a waterfall of midnight hair that she allowed to hang loose in stark contrast to the red of her kimono and the white of her skin.

So when she pushed herself elegantly to her feet, the room stilled instantly. She drew every gaze, no sound necessary. When she spoke, her voice was soft. Volume had never been necessary for Yuki to be heard.

"Akkuma," she began, and looked at each of the 25 gathered members, in turn. Her gaze paused for only a fraction on her father, Sato, where he sat at the far end of the room, and moved on with no change of expression. She had no time for the sorrow in his hard features, or the guilt. "We have gathered, for the first time in a decade. The cause is grave." The statement was met with solemn nods. All knew the purpose of this meeting.

"The girl," one of the younger members supplied. He was from the Tokyo branch, and Yuki had not met him. But he sat straight, a confident light in his youthful features, and the other men from Tokyo seemed to defer to him. Yuki nodded.

"Ren Clarkson," she said, speaking to the entire assembly. "Ren Akkuma. You are all familiar with the name." More nods.

"Your daughter, correct, Yuki?" The sneer came from only a few down to Yuki's left—a man of late middle age, with his hair in a warrior's bun and a shiny scar across half his face. Yuki visibly stiffened at the informal tone. _Shinji,_ she thought warningly. _Don't push me._

"In blood only," she vocalized coldly. Shinji had been after her seat as clan head for at least two decades, since she had been so named. When he discovered her link with what the clan had labeled the Titan girl, he had seen it as an opportunity, sure that the "honor" would require enough of Yuki's time that she would relinquish her seat. He had even lead the clan during the three years that Yuki was occupied "managing" the girl.

Every year since her unquestioned return to power, he had grown more bitter, and more bold.

"How pitiful," he said dryly. Yuki ignored him. She had made her peace with Ren's fate, and her role, since conception.

"I'm you are also aware," Yuki continued speaking to the council. "Ren, now nineteen, has finally demonstrated those qualities we instilled in her. In short, her titan blood has finally shown itself." Yuki's eyes almost seemed to glow as she spoke, and her excitement was shared by every person in the room. Save one: Sato Akkuma sat stiff as a board while, around him, the council shuffled with energy. His face was passive as ever, but Yuki could not meet his eyes. _You wanted this for me,_ she wanted to remind him. _And for Ren. It's far too late for regrets._

"So, when does she arrive?" Yuki turned to face the only other female member of their council, an ancient woman, she was a respected member of the Kyoto branch, and Yuki knew her well.

"Unfortunately, Ren will be unable to join us, Misako," she answered. Her voice remained even, but the light left her face as she spoke, and her shoulders drooped ever so slightly. The news Yuki had to share rested heavy on her chest. "Two days ago, Ren Clarkson boarded a plane bound for us," she explained, voice clear. "Sato Akkuma saw her off, did you not?" She leveled her father with a stare. Sato nodded stiffly.

"I did," he confirmed. "I can assure you, Ren was aboard the plane." Yuki didn't have to listen very hard to hear the bitter regret in his voice. Yuki agreed—it was truly regrettable that Ren had been on _that_ plane, in particular.

"Five hours and thirty minutes into the flight, Ren's plane crashed." The council stirred. There were even a few murmurs—tantamount to outcries, from a group so accustomed to silence and formality. Yuki raised her hand, and all stilled. "Please, do not be overly concerned."

"Don't be concerned?" It was Shinji again. Yuki resisted the urge to glare. "The Titan girl was the product of decades of research," he argued. "She possessed traits it will take time and money to create again—traits we can't triumph without. And you tell us to remain calm?" Despite his words, Shinji knew how to play his cards. His voice betrayed none of the emotion he argued for, and every word was intended to strike the council against Yuki. She, along with Sato and Adam Fritz, had pushed the project. She had assured everyone that the funding required would be worth it, and that at last the Akkuma clan might have its revenge and the world's salvation, all in one girl. In reminding the council of its debts, its seemingly wasted effort, Shinji attempted to turn them against her.

"Wait to learn the facts before you demonstrate your impatience, Shinji," Yuki answered, voice level but sharp condemnation in her face. A lesser man would have blanched at the reprimand. Shinji merely raised his chin in prideful defiance, unapologetic. Yuki thought regretfully that he would make a good ally, if he weren't so power-hungry.

"Ren's plane went down over Paradis." Sato spoke softly, eyes on the floor, but the reaction to his words was immediate and palpable. There was no sound, but ever gaze turned to Yuki. Hope lifted the tension in the room, and explanations were in order.

"Sato speaks true," Yuki sighed. "We tracked the plane from takeoff until its crash, and by all accounts it landed not far from Wall Maria."

"This is good news," Misako stated slowly, eyes thoughtful. "If the girl survived." At this, the murmurs struck up again, and Yuki allowed the questions to surface before she intervened. What were the odds of her being alive? If she was, would she stay that way? Perhaps most importantly, how would she know of their mission? Yuki met Sato's gaze across the room. He offered a minute nod, and she turned to walk toward the sliding, paper door at the edge of the room.

"Ren is likely alive," she said as she walked, socked feet silent against the floor. "She's a hardy girl, and her very design gives her an advantage on that island." Silent nods, all waiting for reassurance. The fate of the family, maybe the world, rested on the Titan girl. But Yuki never put all her eggs in one basket, and so she would offer the best assurance she could: a plan B. "Nevertheless, there is a possibility she could have perished in the crash."

"And then where are we?" Shinji demanded, more to the council than to Yuki.

"Regardless of whether she lives or not," Yuki continued, ignoring the outburst. "The fact remains, we have not been able to train Ren, or inform her of her purpose, our mission. There is a simple remedy for this." As the council stared, hanging on the tantalizing hope she fed them, Yuki pulled open the paper door.

The girl looked like a miniature version of her mother. Pale skin, silken ebony hair to the floor when she kneeled, clothed in a black keikogi. When she opened her eyes, they were chips of black ice.

"Council," she stated in a smooth, quiet voice. She dipped into a low bow, hands on the floor, and did not rise from her kneeling position.

"This is Mai," Yuki said. "Born five years before the Titan girl was created. My true daughter." The council was dumbfounded. Sato stared at the girl, every inch her mother, and resisted the urge to sigh. Here was a girl he had only met once, when she was five and he came to collect the newborn Ren. Even then, she had been unnaturally stoic for such a young girl; polite to a fault, and already a gifted fighter.

Mai's fate remained more pitiful even than Ren's, trapped in the shrine and trained practically since birth.

"Who's the father?" Misako asked, a sly glint to her old features. Yuki offered a soft smile.

"Daichi Akkuma," she said, so softly the council strained to hear, and it took them a moment to be sure they had, indeed, heard correctly. When Misako's expression morphed into one of shock, the rest of the council took leave to whisper excitedly.

"Daichi?" They whispered. Yuki struggled to hide her emotions. Daichi had always been her weak point. Long intended to be head of the clan, he was descended directly from Senji Ackerman—the last head before their clans' departure from Paradis. As such, Daichi was a natural leader, and it had made sense for Yuki to pair with him—it had been a political marriage, by all accounts, with Mai as a useful side-effect.

And Yuki had loved him. Fiercely, like she would never love again. Not even his child, who seemed to resemble her, alone, with none of Daichi's strong personality or fiery will.

"So she was conceived before Daichi left for Germany," the young man from Tokyo said thoughtfully. Yuki nodded.

"Daichi didn't know about her," she explained. If he had, perhaps he wouldn't have gone to Germany to meet with the exiled, Marleyan king. Perhaps he would have fought harder when they captured him. Perhaps he would have found a way back from Paradis.

Yuki shook her head. Such thoughts no longer served her purposes.

"How does this child solve our dilemma?" Shinji spoke at last. "Unless she possesses any of the _unique_ traits of the Titan girl, she's useless." Yuki rounded on him.

"How often must I tell you to keep your ignorant tongue behind your teeth?" she asked, voice like ice. Shinji bristled, but kept his mouth shut. Yuki walked back to her original seat, and Mai stood carefully to follow. On her feet, she was taller than her mother by a few inches, and every movement she made spoke to years of training. She moved like a snake—casual and elegant, oozing the surety of one with utter confidence in her strength. She knelt beside her mother and kept her gaze on the floor.

"Mai is not like the Titan girl," Yuki admitted. "However, she has been prepared for this scenario since Ren was created. Here is what we propose: Send Mai to Paradis. She will rendezvous with Ren, tell the girl our goals and assist in their success."

"And in the event of Ren's death?" Yuki met Misako's gaze calmly.

"Losing the Titan girl would be unfortunate," she conceded. "Getting to the Marley camp and the Scout regiment pawns may be out of reach without her. Nevertheless," she put a hand on Mai's lean shoulder. "I have full confidence that Mai can accomplish our true purpose, and deal with both the Coordinator and the Fritz on the island." Yuki waited calmly for a response.

For a long moment, the council remained silent, many of the members sharing glances. Yuki narrowed her gaze. Perhaps the most annoying thing about her position: she was surrounded by expert masters in chakra management, and she could read nothing from them as they deliberated.

Finally, it was Tokyo's spokesman who stood.

"It seems we have settled," he said clearly. "Send the girl. We will place this operation on her shoulders." He met Mai's gaze, and spoke directly to her. "Are you prepared?"

"Of course," Mai answered tonelessly. He nodded.

"Then prepare for immediate departure. It seems we have no time to wait. Head, do we have a method of communication with her?" Yuki shook her head.

"Unfortunately, we will lose all contact once Mai lands on the island."

"Then I propose a time limit," Misako cut in. "We will give Mai and the Titan girl a maximum of five years to accomplish their task and make it back here."

Mai didn't so much as blink. The consequence of failure would not be discussed—it was safe to assume that the Akkuma would mobilize on the island, and the results for Mai would be severe. Never mind that she was one girl against an island full of monsters, or that making it back from the island was a never-before-accomplished feat. Mai had trained for 21 years, since the age of 3.

She stood and bowed to the council.

"I must prepare for departure," she announced, and silently left the room, sliding the door closed behind her. She would accomplish this mission, and fulfill the purpose that had consumed her life.

And she would do it without the assistance of her unnatural mongrel of a half sister.

 **I'm so intrigued by Mai! I think I'll probably give her a fic of her own at some point...but let's just get through this one, first, haha. There's still a long way to go! Anyway, lemme know if you have questions, or need clarification...or want to Beta or anything. And stay tuned for the next chapter: back to Ren and the Scouts!**


	7. Alien

**Okay: I promise, this is the last chapter before Ren and Akiko finally meet the scout regiment! I'm sorry it took so long...I'm not the most concise writer, and I will try to work on that so you guys don't get bored. But I thought that these first six chapters were kinda important to set everything up. Hopefully I haven't lost too many of you.**

 **Anyway-Enjoy!**

It had been two days.

Ren wasn't sure how much longer she and Akiko would last if they stayed put.

Smoke hung, dark and heavy, around the field. The air was dense with the acrid stench of smoke and blood and burning plastic, and the new but oddly recognizable scent of dead bodies, sour with spilled bodily fluids. The cabin had plenty of provisions they could use…but it wasn't starvation that worried Ren.

Sparks caught on patches of dried grass, and great mounds of mangled metal jutted from the smooth landscape. The crackle of electrical fires, where the plane's internal wiring shorted out, seemed to punctuate the silence—devoid of the moans, sobs and panicked conversations that had been some minor comfort during the first night.

Ren couldn't see much through the smoke, but she didn't need a visual to know that all of the survivors—the meager ten or so that had lived—were dead. Gone. _Eaten._

 _Grotesque figures, ungainly and disproportionate. Freezing, debilitating terror when the first woman screamed…scooped up in a giant, babyish hand, raised to a mouth too wide, with too many teeth…_

Ren blinked, clearing the tears that blurred her vision at the memories. It was almost by chance that Ren had seen them first, rising on the horizon like manifest terror with the dawn. She and Akiko had managed to escape and hide in the nose of the plane.

 _But they could come back for us at any time…_

At the thought, a thrill of overpowering fear ran through Ren's body, and she shook her head violently. If she thought about those _things_ , every inch the giants from her nightmares, she would lose her nerve. She would break down, and they would both die.

Crouching in the nose of the plane, Ren and Akiko made preparations. With the leftover first aid supplies, Ren managed to wrap Akiko's head injury, thankful that her own wounds were superficial and had already stopped bleeding. She vividly remembered Akiko's reaction to the sight of her steaming blood when the girl first woke up, and even now she seemed to edge away from Ren ever so slightly.

So she set Akiko to scrambling about the destroyed cabin for supplies—extra clothes, flashlights, any food or snacks or drinkable liquid. Let the girl think, a while, on her own while Ren checked the cockpit.

The pilots were exactly as they had landed. One had blood pooling from his ears, an odd dent in his head where it had rammed against the console. The other was bent at an odd angle, neck clearly snapped.

Ren grimaced, and retched at the sharp smell of decay, thick in the island's humid climate. Yet, determinedly, she went through pockets and jackets, eyes screwed narrow in disgust as she gingerly moved gray, death-chilled hands. It was worth the trouble when she discovered two swiss army knives and a flashlight keychain. Nevertheless, Ren's eyes were wide and glassy, her heart beat fast and hard, and her hands trembled.

She'd never seen death until the last 36 hours. Never even knew anyone that died…and yet, in the meager course of a couple days, she'd seen people blown apart, their limbs scattered and their flesh charred; she'd seen people writhe in pain, knowing their injuries would kill them slowly; she'd watched people get _crushed_ , too shocked to even get out of the way…and she'd seen people _swallowed_.

"Ren, will this bag work?" Akiko's voice pulled Ren from her grotesque memories, and she realized she had been sitting, frozen, in the entrance to the cockpit, eyes glazed over with horror. She turned back towards the cabin to find Akiko holding up her findings, and offered a firm nod. _Focus!_

"That's great, Akiko," she said and offered a shaky smile. The girl had managed to find both a backpack and a satchel—neither of great quality, but they would work in a pinch. emOr a crisis/em, Ren amended bitterly, and climbed back toward Akiko to help her pack the bags. While they worked, Ren allowed her gaze to flicker regularly to one of the plane's windows, facing directly up into the sky.

She wanted them moving by dark.

When they were finished, the sun had only just crept toward the horizon, blue-purple clouds stretched across the sky and the shadows began to lengthen. If Ren had to guess, she'd say it was probably near to 4 o'clock, and there was little else to do in the way of preparation.

It was time for them to go.

She pilfered fresh, unbloodied clothes from abandoned suitcases—cargo pants, a tank top, a jacket for herself; t-shirt, jeans, a hoodie for Akiko. Sturdy shoes for both. It was a shame they couldn't find hiking boots that fit, but tennis shoes would have to work.

Ren slung the satchel over her shoulder and helped Akiko into the backpack. She fought to contain her irritation when the girl flinched at her touch, dark eyes resting for only a moment on a long, scabbed-over gash on Ren's right arm. emWe're going to have to get past this/em, she thought. They couldn't be effective or focus on survival if the girl was stuck on Ren's abnormal blood.

Ren quickly assessed Akiko as the girl hurriedly averted her dark gaze. She was holding up well—pale, clearly still shaken, but a determined line to her mouth. For the umpteenth time, Ren was grateful she had been unconscious for the first, terrible attack. Even the vague thought made Ren's blood run cold and her stomach curdle. She guessed if steaming blood was the worst Akiko had seen thus far, her luck wasn't something Ren would complain about.

"Where will we go?" Akiko asked quietly. Ren placed her hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "But there have to be other people on this island. We'll find them, and then maybe we can get help." It was a weak plan, Ren knew. There was no guarantee that anything other than those horrendous giants existed on the island. _But they eat people._ Ren's hand subconsciously tightened on Akiko's shoulder as her gaze settled, scarred and almost wild with purpose, on the horizon. _That means they have to have a supply of humans..._

"What about…those things? Whatever killed everyone else…" It was as though Akiko had read her mind, and Ren followed her gaze toward the field of crushed, dismembered bodies, all the more surreal in the long late-afternoon shadows. Akiko's voice held a tremor, and her eyes appeared glassy. She hadn't seen the giants…but she'd seen the aftermath. Perhaps the mystery was worse, left entirely to the girl's imagination.

"I don't think they'll come back yet," Ren bluffed, injecting as much confidence into her voice as possible. "There were a lot of people gathered here—maybe that's what caught their attention. I don't know if they'll go after just two of us."

"Okay," Akiko didn't sound convinced. But a small frown puckered her brow, and she clenched her jaw. Ren smiled softly at the girl's pluck, and had a flare of hope that they could survive this…which reminded her.

"Ah, here," she said and pulled one of the pilots' knives from the pocket of her filched leather jacket. She pushed it into Akiko's clammy hand. "It doesn't seem like much, but it could save your life. Weak points are here," she twisted Akiko's hand to point the knife at her own kidney, "here," the space between her ribs, just beneath her breastbone, "here," the exposed side of her neck.

"I don't—" Akiko started, her hand shaking slightly, but Ren shook her head. Hopefully, the girl wouldn't need to use this information. But it was always better to know and not need, than to need and not know.

"Always go for the eyes if you can, and if someone catches you, stab here," Ren pinched the flesh between Akiko's forefinger and thumb. "When you stab someone, use both hands—one around the hilt, one pushing from behind. You're small, so you'll need to use your whole body force for impact."

Akiko absorbed the knowledge in wide-eyed silence, with nods that hovered between vigorous and panicked. Ren wracked her brain for any other useful information.

"It would help if she had even the slightest clue what those nightmarish creatures _were_ , or what else they could expect to find on this God-forsaken island…

"I don't know if any of this will help…" Akiko mumbled bitterly, scowling at the knife in her hand.

"It might," Ren argued. "Those things were big, but they seemed fundamentally human. If you stab one in the eye, it might drop you." Mortified, she heard a tremor of fear in her own voice. Akiko looked up, hearing it too, and Ren cleared her throat.

"Alright," she said, and pulled out a flashlight. She grabbed Akiko's non-knife hand firmly in her own, noticing that both were over-warm and sticky. "Let's go."

ΩΩ

It had been two days.

In that time, they had already lost ten more men, along with their horses, and Levi was less sure than ever that the exhibition extension was worth it.

He leaned, irritated, against a scraggly tree while the troops watered the horses, stretched their legs and numbly chewed thick, tasteless army rations. His fingers danced restlessly against the immaculate, polished silver of his gear, steely eyes ruthlessly scanned the horizon for any sign of further trouble. _These damn aliens better be worth it,_ he thought, gaze resting for only a moment on the covered wagon of corpses.

"Yo," a cheery voice interrupted. Levi turned to scowl at Hange as she danced toward him, as obnoxiously excited as ever. "I'm your relief."

"Hm," Levi huffed, pushing off the tree. "All yours, shit-glasses," he grumbled. Hange merely smiled wider.

"Oh? Someone's in a bad mood," she hummed. Levi's face remained impassive.

"This damn extension better be fucking worth it," he said by way of explanation. Hange's smile dampened, and she looked toward the horizon. Levi followed her gaze, eyes resting on the black smudge against the sky, where the pillar of smoke had dissipated into wispy smears.

"I have a feeling it will be," she said, with an unusual note of seriousness. Her eyes were unreadable behind the reflection of her lenses, and Levi afforded the smoke one last scowl before turning away.

"Tch," he clicked his tongue as he walked towards where the ash-blond youth from before pulled his horse's reigns. "Worth it to you means hell for the rest of us," he muttered. Hange stifled a giggle. He wasn't wrong.

"Captain!" Levi had one foot in his stirrups when Petra jogged up to him. He didn't bother getting down, merely shot her a look over his shoulder.

"Petra," he intoned. Her green peridot eyes were wide, the slight sheen of sweat on her brow. If he recalled correctly, she'd been at a nearby spring with Mike, filling canteens. If she'd run all the way back… "What happened?"

"Titans," she breathed heavily. "Two abnormals! They walked right by us!" Her words came fast and loud, in between gulps of air. Petra was one of the best runners on Levi's squad, and he knew her breathless state was more a product of fear than physical exertion. He raised a hand.

"Calm down, Petra," he commanded sternly. She shut her mouth, forcing breath through her nose, but her eyes remained wide. "They walked past you?"

"Yes, sir."

"How far away?"

"No more than twenty meters, sir."

"Are you sure they saw you?" Petra nodded vehemently, and Levi's scowl deepened. It wasn't the most unusual thing for titans to ignore one or two people—and he knew Petra had been with Mike, alone. But the past cases of such an occurrence all had the same prerequisite: something else had caught the titans' attention. Something more valuable than just one or two humans.

"Captain…what do you think they're after?" Petra's voice had smoothed out, her breathing even, and her eyes were serious. She'd come to the same conclusion he had. Levi narrowed his gaze and hoisted his body onto his horse.

"I don't know," he said. "Whatever it is, we damn well better get there first." Petra nodded sharply, but Levi had already trotted his horse through the remaining troops to where Erwin stood beside his own chestnut stallion. The blond commander read his corporal's face instantly, and his blue eyes sparkled.

"What happened, Levi?" he asked immediately once Levi's dark gray mare had slowed to a walk.

"Titans," Levi answered. "Two, both abnormal. It seems they passed twenty meters from Petra and Mike, with a clear view. Bastards didn't give a shit." Erwin narrowed his eyes. That Levi had lapsed into the crass language of his thug past indicated the captain's irritation and stress, despite the man's stoney expression.

"Something else must have caught their eyes," he said. Levi nodded. Erwin sighed. "Let's move. If they're after something, it just means we were right, and this is worth checking out."

"We should be there in another couple hours," Levi said by way of agreement. It only took them ten minutes to mobilize, and Erwin pushed his exhausted, frazzled troops faster than he knew was kind. Their discomfort, like the lives of their comrades, was well worth whatever awaited behind that thick fog of smoke.

He hoped.

 **Oh no-titans headed Ren's way! How will she manage? Will the Scouts make it in time to help? What on earth will Ren and Akiko make of the humans of Paradis-especially Humanity's Strongest shrimp? Haha-keep reading to find out!**

 **To my lovely reviewers-/strongstrongGuest, XxInfatuationNotLovexX and Jayla Fire Gal, thanks for the encouragement!**

 **It definitely helps to know at least some of you have read and liked what I have so far. Don't hesitate to let me know if I lose your interest; I am always looking for constructive criticism, and would love the opportunity to improve my writing.**

 **TTFN! See you in Chapter 7 :)**


	8. Monsters

**I'm back, chapter seven in tow! This one was kinda tricky to write-it's so easy to get bogged down in action! I had to deliberate a lot, too, about exactly how I wanted this scene to go. After all, it's the scout's first impression of Ren...and her first impression of the scouts, too! I opted for an action scene...but who knows if it was the right choice (neh, Levi? haha).**

 **Anyway-enjoy!**

She ran, and it was neither efficient nor elegant. Ahead of her, Akiko sprinted as fast as her skinny legs could carry her, backpack thumping against her back with every stride. Ren grimaced—they weren't fast enough. Not by a long shot.

After all, these were monsters with stride lengths of a couple meters, there was no way they could escape on foot.

Ren could have kicked herself when Akiko first caught sight of the two giants, running like unsteady toddlers around the cops of trees. She'd lost focus, hadn't been paying attention…had been too relieved to make it through the arduous, gruesome minefield of corpses and live wires, the cops of trees only a half mile away.

"Ren!" Akiko's panicked voice snapped her from self-loathing, and Ren's first reaction was to search around the younger girl for the source of worry. It was only when she realized Akiko was fine, well ahead of the beasts, that Ren turned her attention to herself.

Too late.

Grasping fingers, each the length and width of her entire person and then some, passed in front of her. A fleshy cage. Ren was trapped, and the fingers closed in to press hard against her torso. They _squeezed_ , and she couldn't stifle a shrill, desperate scream. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as her feet left the ground, the combined memories of the plane's survivors and years of dreams vivid in her mind.

She was going to be eaten…

Ren scrabbled against the massive hand, clawed and pounded at gross, mottled flesh until her hands were sore, fingers bloodied. The gigantic creature didn't seem to notice. Her nails didn't leave so much as a scratch on the oversized, babyish hands.

Within moments, she was staring into the hideous face. So close to being human, but with exaggerated, grotesque features. Eyes too large, too far apart, with none of the depth of life. Nose squashed upward, dragging the upper lip with it.

It was a face perpetually twisted into a horrible sneer.

 _She was going to be eaten!_

Her whole body trembled. What felt like miles below, she heard Akiko screaming, and managed to wrench her body around to look at the girl. She stood still, her eyes a mask of terror, crying harder than Ren herself. Frozen. Ren's heart pounded—there had been two monsters, right? Where was the other one?!

"Akiko," she gasped. She wanted to yell at the girl to run away, but couldn't get enough breath in her lungs. _I can't die!_ She thought desperately, eyes still fixed on Akiko. The girl wouldn't survive on her own…

No more than a foot from the bloated, receding lips now, Ren screwed her eyes shut. Her breath came fast, panicked, as her mind raced for something— _anything—_ to get her out of this. Blank. She could only wait for the inevitable, excruciating pain of teeth, ripping through her flesh, severing her spine…

It never came.

When Ren worked up the courage to pry one eye open, she realized she was held right up to a massive, glassy eye. The pupil, alone, was almost the size of her head, and she could see her own pale, stricken face reflected there. The giant blinked, long and slow, but the pressure of its fingers didn't increase, and it didn't make any further move to eat her.

"W…what do you want?" Ren's voice came out weak and shaky. Would it speak to her? _Could_ it? Her whole body went rigid as the massive teeth parted, jaw widening. She waited to be tossed in, only to be distracted from the mind-numbing fear by the stench of rot and decay that wafted from its cavernous mouth. Her hair was blasted back from her face, and she felt the splatter of large, gelatinous droplets splash against her skin.

She couldn't make a sound, couldn't even blink to avoid the gunk. Ren was mesmerized as its mouth kept _growing_ , its jaw opening far beyond the point where anatomy dictated it should either stop or break. As though the thing's entire head were splitting open at the toothy seam…

"FRIIIIIITZ!" The sound was so terribly deep, it shook Ren's bones. More a physical rumble than a voice. Her stomach heaved.

It had just spoken…right? Moreover, it was her name—her father's name…

"To hell with this," Ren found herself muttering angrily. This monster could talk…it was intelligent! Which meant it operated by intention.

The field of dead flashed in her mind, and rage built to the point that Ren was trembling. _You did it on purpose,_ she thought wildly, half crazed. "Put me the fuck down!"

Ren wasn't normally one for cursing, but given the circumstances, she made an exception.

"I know you can understand me," she said, infuriated all the more by the vacant expression on the massive face. "I know you can talk. So let go of me right this _fucking_ minute, tell me what it is you want, and get your disgusting mouth away from me!" Her voice was shrill and shook with hysteria; she was hoarse, and her anger was far from spent.

At a loss for what else to do, Ren screamed, incoherently, furiously, wordlessly into the giant's face. So hard her hands clenched and her lungs constricted. She couldn't think beyond a fundamental refusal to be eaten.

A flash of silver, a sudden spray of blood, and Ren was in free fall.

Her face went slack with surprise, and she watched the scene in front of her with passive astonishment. _A man…a flying man?_ No…there were wires. She couldn't wrap her head around the movement as an ash-blond boy, probably younger than she was, sliced long, razor-sharp blades into the giant's nape. There wasn't much change in its expression, but the tilting forward of the massive body was all Ren needed to know it was dying.

The grip on her loosened, but she was too shocked to take advantage and escape. _It steams…_ Ren could hardly form the thought, but her eyes didn't leave the fountain of blood as she fell, and for the first time in the past two days she was completely and utterly distracted from her current predicament.

 _The giants have the same blood as me,_ she thought, the blood fountaining around her. A few droplets landed on her arms, stretched out like wings, and it burned, even hotter than her own. _Guess I'm even less human than I thought…_

Luckily, Ren's savior noticed her disinterest in saving herself, and sent what could only be a grappling hook into the flesh of the creature's pointer finger. He used it to swing toward her, catching her midair with a grunt of effort.

"Get a grip!" He yelled at Ren's vacant expression. Their descent to the ground was a blur, and the boy moved faster than Ren's eyes could track.

"What are you?" She asked. She'd meant to ask _who_ the man was…but as her mind scrambled to keep up she thought _what_ was just as apt. He shot her an odd look, and opened his mouth to answer, but didn't get the chance.

"Ren!" Akiko hurled herself at her older companion. Ren idly patted her head and accepted the tight hug, her eyes on the massive body as it thudded to the ground. Akiko cried, and kept Ren as a buffer between herself and their savior. But her dark eyes remained on high alert as she looked up into Ren's face. "What about the other one?" she asked. For a moment, Ren frowned at her.

 _The other one?_

Realization hit her like a club, and Ren whipped around to face the direction the giants had first come from.

"I don't see it," she said. Somehow, that was more scary than if it had been running toward them.

"There was another one?!" The boy sounded as alarmed as Akiko looked and Ren's pulse hammered erratically at her temples. She scanned their surroundings, unsure whether she hoped to see it or not…and then she _smelled_ it.

Ren could hardly comprehend her own thoughts and senses as a strangely recognizable smell assaulted her nose—like rotting leaves, sour milk and wet metal. She didn't know how she knew it was the giant, and didn't have time to think about it.

"Look out!" The words barely left her mouth before footsteps thudded behind them.

The boy tried to shout and took a few quick steps forward, but this giant was faster than the last. It swatted him with one huge hand, and he rolled along the ground. When he stopped, he didn't move, and Ren almost thought he was dead.

Maybe it would have been a mercy if he was.

The giant scooped him into its fist before Ren made it five steps toward him, and she trembled with Akiko at its feet. _What can I do?_ she thought desperately.

It lifted the boy, struggling, to its mouth. This time there was no hesitation.

 _There must be something I can do!_

She couldn't even move—she and Akiko may as well have been melded to the spot as the giant opened its mouth. The boy screamed incoherently, legs thrashing, and his whole body wriggled. There was no dignity in the face of being eaten.

"Please," she heard Akiko whimper beside her, unable to finish the plea. _Somebody,_ Ren thought numbly. _Help him!_ She couldn't do anything but hold tight to Akiko and subconsciously cover her eyes, as though that would make any real difference.

As though the girl hadn't seen hell already.

Ren clenched her teeth.

"Run towards the trees," she commanded Akiko. When the girl hesitated, Ren gave her a rough shove and watched her stumble towards the forest.

As for Ren, she darted forward, between the giant's legs. The boy's gear had landed in a yard sale over the green, and she paused only long enough to scan the equipment and pull two long, rectangular blades from their odd sheathe. _No hilt?_ She didn't have time to think about the stupidity of that design.

She didn't have time for much of anything, in fact.

The boy's head seemed to creep toward the titan's mouth in slow motion as Ren pushed herself to speed towards the giant's ankle. They appeared humanoid…Ren could only hope that meant their anatomy worked the same way.

With a cry of combined anger, fear and desperation, Ren gripped both swords in the dual-wielding style she had practiced with her grandfather. She fleetingly wished she had spent more time with swords like her grandfather had asked—her interest had only ever seemed to lie with hand-to-hand, and her swordsmanship was shaky at best.

The giant seemed to notice her, and raised one foot to slam it back down. Ren rolled easily out of the way. _Did it miss me on purpose?_ When she regained her feet, she was within arm's reach of its other foot.

 _Now!_ She pulled both swords back and to the side, and with a harsh scream she drove them into the taught skin between heel and calf. If she could just manage to sever its achilles tendon…

ΩΩ

 _Goddamn brat!_ This was exactly why Levi hated rookies.

The minute the pair of titans had come into view, he'd taken off. It hadn't taken the elite squad long to figure out why: two humans. Both girls, by the screaming, one by the tree line while the other struggled in the titan's meaty fist. He supposed that idiot kid had wanted to save the blond one…

Which, in Levi's opinion, didn't qualify as an excuse.

"Oi, Eld," he commanded drily. "That little shit left us no choice—we're taking them out."

"The Commander and the rest of the corps are still a couple of leagues behind us, Captain," Petra interrupted from the left. Levi didn't even afford her a glance.

"Guess they'll miss the fun," Gunther supplied with his customary grin. They all spurred their horses faster, Levi's eyes trained on where the blond—Jackson, apparently—whizzed around one titan's head. They were perhaps a league from the titan when the boy managed to dart forward and slice the nape of its neck, sending its body sprawling forward and flinging the blond girl from its grasp.

"Looks like the rookie can handle himself, after all," Petra said with a broad grin. Levi's gaze narrowed.

"We'll see," he offered distractedly. _There were two…_ His steel gaze darted all over the scenery, teeth clenched. Where had the second titan gone?

One of the girls—small enough that Levi could tell she was a kid—suddenly screamed, and Levi's gaze snapped back to her. _There_. The other titan lunged forward out of the trees. Why it was in there, no one had time to ponder at the moment. This titan was _fast_.

Before Jackson could recover, it leaned down, reached out a hand and slammed him across the ground. Levi clenched his jaw—he was still too far away.

"Captain!" He could hear the desperation in Petra's voice, and forced his own frustrations down.

"We won't get there in time," he warned, tension apparent in his voice. "Keep moving."

"If we can save one of the kids, this'll be a success," Oluo grunted. Levi nodded. Surely they could do that much.

Jackson was clenched in a giant fist. The blond girl wasn't moving—far too close to the titan. _Stupid brat,_ Levi thought angrily. She was a lost cause.

"Go after the dark haired girl," he told Petra. "She's our best bet." Petra nodded, mute, and immediately veered off toward the trees. Levi sent Eld and Gunther with her, but for reasons even he wasn't sure about, he stayed course. Jackson still struggled in the titan's grip; the other girl still stared. There was still a chance he could make it…

Levi was a hard man to surprise. Due, in part, to his utter loathing of surprises, and therefore constant vigilance. But also because, at this point, he had seen more than most in the way of shocking things.

So it meant something, in particular, that the blond girl truly _surprised_ him when she suddenly darted toward Jackson's gear. For a moment, she stared at it, and Levi couldn't help but watch in interest. Then she stooped and pulled two blades from their sheathes.

She clearly had no idea how to use the gear, held them by the sharp, metal nubs meant to attach to trigger handles. But as Levi drew ever, tantalizingly closer, he saw wild conviction in her eyes. Levi had a singularly bad impression of her at that point—only the stupidest, most reckless people were ruled by their emotions to such a degree. He watched her yell something back to the other girl, who shakily backed further into the trees…and then the blond _charged_ the titan!

"What is she doing?!" Levi had been so preoccupied on the action he hadn't noticed that Mike and Hange had both disconnected from Erwin's corps and caught up with him.

"Shitty brat's going to get herself killed," Levi grumbled. Was she trying to save Jackson?

"My research!" Hange wailed, and put on an extra burst of speed. Levi rolled his eyes, but Mike appeared determined.

"We've lost too many men these past couple days to let this kid become titan feed," he said. They were so close—another minute and they'd be able to use their gear.

The titan stomped—Levi thought it looked rather as though it were throwing a tantrum, rather than actually trying to squash the girl. She rolled, got to the other foot, and , holding both blades parallel and to the side, she slashed toward the achilles tendon.

Levi almost smirked; it was a good thought. But he could tell just by looking that it wouldn't cut deep enough. Her stance was ineffective for her size, she wasn't moving with the speed or angle necessary.

Sure enough, her blades buried into titan flesh with almost no effect at all, and but a moment later the titan chomped down on Jackson's body. A last scream cut off abruptly, and it tossed the legs to the ground carelessly. Levi felt familiar rage boil in his chest, as he did every time they lost a scout to a titan's stomach.

The girl seemed to have given up. She'd dropped the blades and fallen to her knees, covered in steaming titan blood. Levi was close enough he could see the clear tracks on her face left by tears.

"Now!" Mike yelled, and he took off. Levi was only a moment behind, launching from his horse with such speed and precision that the animal didn't even spook. He twirled viciously forward and, with a signature spin, buried his blades in the titan's eyes. Blood spurted everywhere, and Levi used the gore and the burst of energy as catharsis.

Here was the only place he allowed all his grief for humanity to show: in his rage against the titans.

Mike sliced through its nape only a moment after Levi's attack. Were the eyes necessary? Not at all—but Levi considered it justice. A little agony before death.

While he and Mike had taken out the titan, Hange had ridden forward to scoop the blond girl from the ground. She struggled for a moment until Hange murmured something into her ear, and then she seemed to simply deflate, become a doll.

They rendezvoused back towards where the corps was catching up, Hange with the blond, and Petra riding with the dark haired one.

"Ren," the younger girl said, and reached forward to put a hand on the blond's arm. Hange leaned around to look into her face.

"Is your name Ren?" she asked. The girl merely gave her a puzzled look, and shook her head as though confused. She seemed to come back to life when her gaze landed on her companion.

"Akiko," she breathed, and grasped the smaller hand. She continued to say more, but it became immensely apparent that she spoke a language Levi had never heard of. No wonder she'd looked confused—she probably couldn't understand Hange any better than they could understand her bizarre, fast-paced tongue.

"Well, at least we know their names," Hange offered weakly. Oluo grimaced, giving both girls a sidelong look as though afraid they carried disease.

"And that they're definitely from _elsewhere,"_ he said unhappily. Levi's face contorted into a deep grimace, and his gaze narrowed on where Ren spoke quickly to the girl, Akiko. He didn't understand a word.

"Shit," he muttered. "So much for getting answers."

 **Wow-think that was my longest chapter yet! Pretty soon here I'll probably start bouncing around a little less and streamline into more of Ren's perspective. But seriously-this chapter was a challenge for me! It says a lot, I think, that Ren decided to go up against the titan, and I couldn't really decide if she was that much of a spitfire or not...**

 **Anyway, a huge shout out to all the people who have reviewed, followed or favorited this story! Especially miss Jayla Fire Gal, who seems to have stuck with me thus far. I appreciate your commentary a lot! I also want to extend the option to PM me if you have any advice or requests or questions-I welcome all of the above, as well as critiques or even dislike. If you** ** _don't_** **like my story, I'd like to hear why! That might be the most interesting kind of review ;)**

 **That's it-sorry for the long author's note. It's getting a little late for me, I guess. Leave a review on your way out if you like, and have a great rest of your night :)**


	9. Adjustments

**Another installment-yay! Honestly, though, not sure about this chapter. It felt a little disjointed while I was writing, and it's more fluff than anything else. I'm still trying to pin down everyone's characters-the SnK cast is so emotionally complicated! But anyway, hope it's still entertaining :)**

 **Enjoy!**

Ren dug her fingernails methodically into the soft flesh of her upper arm. One finger at a time, until each small, chalky crescent mark turned pink and raised.

She was determined to stay awake.

Akiko murmured fitfully in her sleep, small head resting on Ren's outstretched legs while the rest of her body curled into a tight ball. Perhaps it was surprising that the girl could sleep, at all, with the rough movements of the wagon in which they were situated. But Ren suspected, after the past couple days, that she and Akiko could probably sleep through just about anything. They were completely drained, and Ren's body longed for sleep, her eyelids bobbing at half-mast and her limbs like noodles.

So she carved small dents into her skin, and allowed the dull pain to jolt her brain, forcing herself awake and aware. Every so often, she glanced up, and her eyes flickered to the strange soldiers that flanked the wagon on horseback.

She didn't trust them. Not even a little…and that reaction was both confusing and disappointing.

On the one hand, she was thrilled to find other humans—and people who could fight the giants, no less. She would probably feel indebted, for the rest of her life, to the boy who had taken her place in death at the hands of the giants.

But on the other, she saw something unpleasant in each of the hard, appraising stares they shot at her and Akiko. Especially the dark-haired, steel-eyed man that stood mere inches taller than Ren, herself. He seemed to have a particular intensity, and she got the distinct feeling he didn't like her any more than she liked him.

Plus, he had a thug face. Completely untrustworthy.

To top it off, Ren couldn't understand a single word out of her saviors' mouths—she could only assume they spoke the same, bizarre language she had read in the journal. A serious complication in the scheme of things.

For what must have been the hundredth time since their narrow escape from the giants, Ren lamented the loss of that journal. She could almost picture it, lying amidst the wreckage of the plane crash. Assuming it had survived…

What answers could she have found there?

Akiko released a groan, and Ren stopped attacking her arm to observe the girl carefully. Her dark eyes opened slowly to stare out the back of the cart at greenery that passed beneath and beyond. Her gaze was bleary, eyes at half-mast, clammy sweat on her brow and a grayish cast to her skin. She'd lost more liquid than was good for her in repeated vomiting, and she was still in shock—if Ren was honest, they both were. They'd been surrounded by death, probably for the first time in either of their lives, for the past twenty-four hours. Ren swallowed thickly as Akiko whimpered.

"Hey," she said gently, placing a hand on Akiko's hunched shoulder. "It's okay. We're okay." The girl pushed herself up, and Ren clicked her tongue. "Lay back down—you need more rest. You've only been asleep about thirty minutes…"

Akiko shook her head and scooted back to sit shoulder to shoulder with Ren, back pressed against the back of the cart. She wiped furiously at her eyes to clear tears that tracked through the grime on her cheeks, and leaned her head on Ren's shoulder.

"We made it," she sighed tonelessly, a stubborn quiver to her chin. Ren wanted to tell her it was okay to cry…but she respected the girl's resolve.

"Don't relax yet," she warned. Akiko merely nodded, seeming to understand Ren's distrust as her black eyes flickered first to the thug-faced man, and then to the brunette in glasses.

Ren reached for the Jansport backpack in the corner of the wagon, rifled around inside until her hand grasped a block of crinkled plastic. She pulled it out and handed the protein bar to Akiko. "Eat this," she commanded.

"I'm pretty far from hungry right now," Akiko complained, face haunted. Ren could guess at the nightmarish images in her head.

"I know. But you're dehydrated, and you haven't eaten anything since yesterday. Trust me, you need this."

"Logical reasoning doesn't make me less nauseous," Akiko grumbled, but she took the bar anyway and peeled away the plastic. Ren made a point to stare until she took a bite, chewed, and swallowed.

"When you're done with that, I want you to drink at least half of that water bottle," she pointed to where the plastic Aquafina jutted from the backpack's side pocket.

Akiko nodded, mouth full, and Ren swore she could see a bit of color return to her cheeks as she polished off the food. Ren's own stomach felt knotted with hunger and the special anxiety of trauma, but she resisted the urge to eat her own protein bar. She felt like a wild thing—too distrustful to eat with suspicious people watching. Almost instinctively, her gaze returned to the soldiers around them.

"Oi." She startled when the dark-haired man abruptly locked eyes with her. "Do you need something?" Ren blinked—she couldn't understand what he was saying, but she didn't appreciate the tone. Everything about this man, from his expression to the tambre of his voice, announced his disdain for her and for Akiko. _Arrogant thug…_

"Who are you people..?" she muttered, fully aware that he probably couldn't understand her, either. He simply raised an eyebrow, then sighed and directed his gaze back ahead of his horse.

"I can't understand a damn thing that comes out of this brat's mouth," Levi muttered. Beside Ren, Akiko scowled at the man.

"I don't like him," she said thoughtfully. Ren nodded.

"Neither do I…But we need these people, for now…"

"What an interesting language!" Ren had been so preoccupied with the thug to their right that she hadn't paid attention to the woman on their left. She had leaned forward from horseback, nose mere inches away. Ren flinched back and bumped Akiko.

"What?!" She demanded, obviously to receive no answer. The brunette's eyes were unreadable behind the glare on her glasses, but she had a wide grin on her face and the tint of color to her cheeks. _What's got her so excited?_

"You really don't understand anything I'm saying, do you?" she gushed. "I wonder how long it would take for you to learn our language. Here: My…name…is…Hange." She spoke with agonizing slowness and unnecessary volume, one hand curved to point back at herself. Ren's eyes widened—she recognized some words in there.

Had she said _heisse nomen_?

Ren frowned…she'd thought the language looked familiar; like a strange cross between German and Latin. _No wonder Grandfather had me study so hard…_

"My name is Ren Clarkson," she answered, speaking fully in German. The woman—Hange—blinked slowly before her face expanded in elation.

"Ooooh!" she breathed. "So _interesting!_ I know some of those words…" she trailed off and stared back at Ren's, whose brow was furrowed in concentration. _I have my work cut out for me,_ she thought. Sorting out this combination was certainly not going to be easy.

"My name is Ren Clarkson," she said again, this time substituting the word "name" in with the Latin. Hange's face positively glowed.

"That's it!" She practically screamed, and thrust a finger into Ren's face while she turned to the other one. "Levi! Did you hear that?! She can talk!" Ren glowered—Hange made it sound like she were some kind of particularly intelligent wild animal. But she had to admit, the language was starting to make sense to her; all she had to do was listen and pick out familiar words in Latin and German, though the structure was a little different…

The problems came when she tried to _speak_ it, and she pretty much had to guess at which words were in which language, and what the order was. She tapped Hange's hand to get her attention, then used both hands, palms down, to gesture for her to slow down. Hange nodded slowly.

"She wants you to calm the fuck down," the man drawled. Ren quirked an eyebrow—there was a new word in that sentence; something she couldn't recognize as either German or Latin. But based on the rest of the sentence…she rolled her eyes. Probably an expletive _._ Latin didn't really have them…and they didn't function the same way in German as they did in English or Japanese. Less vulgar, more like aggressive adjectives.

"Please," she said carefully. "Talk slower." German. She received blank stares. "Slower?" she said again in Latin. Hange smiled.

"Okay," she said with a nod, appearing to understand. She gestured to Akiko. "And who is this?" she asked, speaking slow enough that Ren could keep up without being insulting.

"Akiko," Ren supplied. At the sound of her name, Akiko appeared distinctly uncomfortable. But her gaze rested mostly on Ren with a look of surprise. Ren smiled at her. "I can understand this language a bit," she explained in Japanese. "It's like a combination of German and Latin—my grandfather had me study both." Akiko nodded slowly, but appeared suspicious.

"You seem awfully well-prepared for this," she said. "You know the right languages, have the martial arts skills…pretty well adapted, if you ask me." Ren averted her gaze. At some point, she would tell Akiko her own, budding suspicions: that her grandfather had always meant her to land here, that this was where the mysterious "war" he mentioned took place. But she couldn't broach the topic while they were still treading water, surrounded by questionable military personnel.

"This is Levi," Hange interrupted, pointing to the dark-haired man. He leveled Ren with a steely gaze.

"How do you speak our language?" he asked. Ren merely shrugged—too hard to explain with her limited vocabulary. Instead she pointed at the emblem that decorated Hange's dark green cloak.

"What?" she asked. It was far easier to stick to one-word comments. Hange followed her gaze.

"We're called the Scout Regiment," she explained carefully. As she spoke, she moved her gaze back to the front and maneuvered her horse around a large rock. The wagon didn't have that luxury, and so Ren felt her stomach flop as it jostled roughly. Akiko grimaced, and Ren kept half her attention on the girl in case there was an injury she had missed.

"Scout Regiment?" she repeated. Hange nodded. "We go beyond the walls into Titan territory…" she paused with Ren's expression of confusion.

"Titans?" Ren mimicked, not recognizing the word. Hange nodded, and her face turned serious—something Ren was quickly understanding to be a rarity for this flamboyant woman.

"Titans," she held her hands apart to indicate large size. "Like giant humans? The monsters that attacked you."

"Ah," Ren ground out, her gaze lowering to the wooden floor of the wagon. Titans. _So that's what they are…_ When she glanced back up to Hange, there was raw fury in her gaze, potent enough that the brunette was mildly taken aback. "They eat people?" Ren asked. For the first time, Hange seemed to have no difficulty understanding her, and nodded.

"Yeah," she said, then cracked a dark grin. "But we kill them." Ren nodded and lapsed into silence. She had the answers she wanted for the time being—more than enough to mull over. She looked back to the man, Levi, and he returned her stare coldly.

 _I still don't like him_ , she thought. But the look on Hange's face as she spoke of killing titans had struck a chord in Ren, and she made the silent decision to suspend judgement on this mysterious Scout Regiment.

ΩΩ

Erwin's face was stoic, composed, as he stared through the hole in Wall Maria. Levi flanked him, and glowered into the ravaged town on the other side. The sun had set an hour ago, leaving the world tinged in gray and silent but for the gentle whistle of wind through the wall. It blasted his hair back from his face and dried his eyes to the point of tearing. He remained expressionless, and almost relished the prickle of cold against his skin.

Behind them, the corps silently went about setting up camp. There was a marked lethargy—devoid of conversation, marked only by the slight shuffle of the medics, the occasional groan from the injured. The comparison between their bleak operation and the fractured town within the walls was a bizarre one.

For probably the millionth time in the past three years, he imagined what it must have been like during that first terrible, unprecedented attack.

"We should have been here," Petra murmured, coming up beside them. Levi set his jaw. She was right…but regret served no purpose.

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Erwin spoke before Levi could. His blue eyes almost glowed. "All we can do is move forward. We'll stay here for the night, and in the morning, we'll take back the wall." He said it so easily, Levi couldn't help but stare at him sidelong.

Erwin knew their chances as well as anyone; the likelihood that they would even make it to Wall Rose, let alone eliminate the titans between, was slim to none. And yet, his face was set, confident, as though their victory was assured.

"Titans first thing in the morning," Levi grumbled. "It's gonna be a shitty day."

"Don't swear," Petra murmured half-heartedly. Her eyes still rested on the wall, but as Levi watched she closed them and turned away. As always, her emotions played visibly on her face.

"Tch." Levi turned his horse and rode back into camp. Wearily, but with no lag in movement, he dismounted and relinquished the reigns to a dark-haired, baby-faced youth who tied it to a tree with a few others. Levi watched the boy give a gentle, exhausted smile, and Jackson's face flashed through his head. Levi gritted his teeth. _Stupid brat._

"Levi!" He was in the middle of re-dampening a patch of crusted blood on the cuff of his sleeve—he had learned the stains came out much more easily if the blood was kept moist. He didn't bother to afford Hange so much as a glance as she danced toward him.

"Captain," Eld greeted tiredly as he approached behind her. Levi dropped his sleeve and glanced around at their camp in disgust. This was a part of expeditions he would never get past. The haphazard sprawl of white tents, the filth of soiled bandages and endless scrabble of the field medics. It made him tense—grime everywhere, and always the chance of titans, despite the dark. His hand rested on his gear.

"We're camping here tonight," Levi said simply. "We'll move into the wall tomorrow morning." His words were met with a silent nod from Eld, and a disturbing smile from Hange.

"I wonder how many titans we'll see tomorrow!" She gushed, near to drooling. Levi shot her a glare.

"Disgusting," he said and began walking toward the center of their camp, dodging stretchers and ghostly, white-cloaked smocks stained red. Hange trailed after him.

"Oi, Levi," she began, hazel eyes wide and hopeful.

"No." He didn't even need to look at her, simply kept walking forward.

"But—"

"NO."

"Give up, Hange," Eld chuckled drily. "You know the Corporal hates leaving titans alive." Levi rolled his eyes. It wasn't that he hated letting them live—he understood as well as the next person why a captive titan would be useful. But when it came down to it, capturing a titan alive always cost so many extra lives…lives he valued more than any extra information.

When it came to titans, Levi knew all he needed to: why to hate them, and how to kill them.

"Then, Eld…" Hange reached for his shoulders, face half-crazed, and Eld brushed her off.

"Don't look at me," he held up both hands. "I've been put on babysitting duty, anyway." At that, Hange stopped walking and looked at Eld.

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. Eld nodded.

"Erwin asked that the elites take turns with the alien brats," Levi explained. "We need them to make it back inside Wall Rose or this whole thing was pointless."

"Oluo was with them last I saw," Eld added. "Though honestly, I can hardly think two traumatized girls are worth the man power. It's not like they're going to be in the line of fire, especially here in camp…" he broke off at Hange's grin.

"It's less to guard them," she said, glasses flashing. "And more to _observe_ them!" Eld pulled a face as she blushed with excitement.

"Calm down, titan freak," Levi intoned.

"But they're just so interesting! Who knows where they're from, what their language is…aah, I want to dissect one!" Eld blanched, and she laughed. Levi walked a little faster. He hated when Hange got like this.

"How are they?" He asked, speaking only to Eld. The blond man moved to stand at Levi's side as they attempted to leave Hange behind them.

"The smaller one is sleeping," he said simply. "She seems fine, just shocked. It's the blond that concerns me…" Levi nodded.

"I agree," he said. Eld waited for him to elaborate, but Levi remained silent. He couldn't put a finger on it, but the look in that girl's eyes was too familiar. _Messy,_ he thought. Brats like her were always messy. And in this case, he had a feeling she wouldn't prove worth the resulting filth.

"Well, we're heading straight for the tent," Eld supplied, unconcerned by his captain's silence. "If you wanted to take a look."

"Ooh—I want to!" Hange squealed. Levi stopped and sighed, a single breath through the nose.

"Get lost, four-eyes," he said. "Your zeal is going to give me constipation." Sadly, Hange had already practically skipped through the white tarps swaying in the breeze and as he approached, Levi could hear her talk in slow, too-loud tones.

"Good evening!" She said. "How are you feeling?" Levi brushed aside the tent and stood at the edge of the saffron glow from the single oil lamp inside. He crossed his arms and regarded its occupants with a scowl. The dark-haired kid—Akiko—was curled on a cot in the corner, asleep. A slight frown marred her brow and a few strands of onyx hair clung to her neck.

The blond, Ren, hovered at the edge of the cot. One hand absently pushed the hair away from Akiko's face as she regarded Hange. Levi frowned and allowed himself to stare while she was preoccupied. If he was honest, there was more than the look in her gray eyes that unsettled him. She was…familiar.

It was her features. Slanted eyes, pale skin, delicate features, a form significantly smaller than average, even for a female. No matter how he looked, she appeared to be oriental, despite the hair and the eyes. The same was even more true of Akiko. He narrowed his eyes, and couldn't help but wonder if these two girls could hold answers to the truth of the mysterious Ackerman name.

As he watched, her eyes suddenly cut over to meet his. In the glow from the lamp, they glistened, and a frown marred her features.

"What," she said, her voice low. "Do you with us?" Levi had to pause and unscramble her sentence—the correct words, in a nonsensical order.

"We don't know yet," he answered coldly. "Depends on whether you're worth keeping around." Ren seemed to understand the sentiment perfectly, and glowered at Levi with enough force that he thought she might leap up at swing at him, then and there.

He couldn't help but remember how she had charged the titan on the battlefield. _She's either crazy, brave, or an idiot._ He looked into her eyes and sneered. _Probably all three. H_ is gaze landed on the visible scab on one of her palms from where she had gripped the raw ends of Jackson's swords. They already looked well on their way to healing…

Suddenly Levi tensed, and his gaze became harder with intent. No longer appraising, but cataloguing. Her injuries…how had they already stopped bleeding? Come to think of it, he was sure he hadn't even seen any blood when they first scooped her sorry ass off the ground. _More questions…_

"First we'll just get you to Wall Rose," Eld smiled, unaware of his captain's tension. Ren quirked an eyebrow and redirected her gaze.

"Wall…Rose?" She glanced toward the back of the tent, in the direction of the wall. "In there?" She pointed. Levi nodded, and the ghost of an emotion flickered across her features. Relief? Determination? "People…others?" she said, looking at Hange.

"Tch, this is fucking annoying," Levi drawled, and turned to leave the tent. He needed to speak to Erwin. "New assignment for you, shit-glasses: teach this brat how to talk. She sounds like a toddler." With that, he left the tent. Behind him, he heard Hange chatter excitedly about the prospects of trading languages, and even Eld's laugh as Ren muttered something disgruntled.

He amended his opinion. She was a messy, inconvenient, alien brat…but potentially useful. He had questions—beyond what he knew Erwin already planned to ask.

As soon as Hange had Ren speaking like a fucking adult, he would have answers.

 **Ooh, Levi's making some logical connections! Wonder where this could lead...too bad he has to be patient since there's a language barrier ;)**

 **Definitely a little bit of filler before we get into the Trost catastrophe (next chapter!) Let me know if things are still making sense. I'm trying to be realistic with Ren and Akiko's language trouble-I assume you've gathered by now that this AU has Paradis situated as a Bermuda's Triangle type situation: part of the broader world, but disconnected. And their culture seemed to be fundamentally German, with some other random influences, so I decided that a language combo of German and Latin might make sense...**

 **Anyway, maybe this whole scene is boring, or unnecessary...but it was kinda fun to think about, so I included it.**

 **Next chapter: stay tuned for more action! We'll finally reconnect with the broader canon in Trost, so maybe things will progress more smoothly.**

 **Leave a review on the way out if you like ;) TTFN!**


	10. Revelation

**Okay...wow. Hi, everyone! I know it's been a bit over a week since I last posted; my sister came to visit from LA (I live in Hawaii), so I took a while off. Then when I came back, I had some serious writers block.**

 **Add to that the sheer length of this chapter-definitely my longest yet-and I'm not really sure how to feel about it.**

 **Anyway, I'll let you lovely readers decide for yourselves.**

Ren couldn't sleep.

She'd never been anywhere so completely, suffocatingly dark. If she couldn't feel the fingers moving, she'd think her hand, an inch from her nose, had disappeared.

Her cot was stiff and rough against her skin, the accompanying blanket blessedly light against the thick, heavy night air. Even still, the fabric was damp with sweat, and she restlessly kicked it off. A frown marred her features as she stared up at where the white fabric of the tent ceiling should have been.

In the dark, reality disappeared.

A stark mockery of Ren's current situation. For the first time, she had no fury—no desperation to survive, or protectiveness of Akiko—to keep despair from setting in. In the course of a weekend, her world had disappeared, as surely as if someone had shut off the lights and left her in the darkness of her nightmares. Ren nearly choked on panic that clotted in her throat, overwhelming in the sightless void, and she sat up on her cot.

 _Breathe in, breathe out_ …she forced air through her nose, out her mouth, and focused on sounds, smells…anything to distract her.

The insects here were unfamiliar; something rather like cicadas, or frogs…The air smelled stale, sharp with the heady spice of too-dry grasses and dust. A steady, percussive slap—light breeze through heavy tarp—created a rhythm with Akiko's even breathing, across the room. The air flow tingled, chilled, against the sweat that dotted Ren's skin, and she irritatedly drummed her fingers against the cot within the pattern.

Unfortunately, meditation proved ineffective. Her brain whirled, unforgiving and unrelenting. _Titans…Shiganshina…the Scout Regiment._ Hange had spent the evening, long past sunset, in "lessons" with Ren. They had started with the purpose of teaching the foreign girl to communicate more effectively. But the session had shifted toward the strange island and its inhabitants—far more in keeping with Ren's curiosity.

 _"So…the giants,"_

 _"Titans," Hange corrected Ren firmly, holding up one finger. Ren couldn't help but marvel at the light smile on her face, even as their discussion turned to the vile creatures that had, apparently, hunted humanity on this island for as long as its people could remember._

 _"Titans," Ren repeated. "You don't know where they came from?" She waited patiently while Hange parsed through her words. Her structure was improving, but she still occasionally switched up her Latin and German._

 _"Correct," Hange agreed. "You switched the words for 'don't know,' by the way." Ren didn't bother responding, but filed the information away._

 _"Then…what_ do _you know about them?" The words were hardly out of her mouth before Hange visibly shifted, her head raising just enough for her lenses to catch in the candlelight and obscure her eyes. Mildly alarmed, Ren assumed the movement was a response to something beyond their conversation. Instinctively she looked toward where Akiko slept in the neighboring cot. Nothing; the girl slept in a ball, face slack._

 _Fortunately—or unfortunately, as the case may have been—Hange's reaction_ was _wholly to do with the subject of titans._

Ren shuddered a bit as she remembered the ensuing lecture (it could not have qualified as a conversation). Hange's overeager tones had continued long into the night, and only ceased when a brown-haired man walked formally into the tent and summoned the bespectacled captain to Commander Erwin. To Ren's chagrin (and subsequent sleeplessness), she found that Hange's information caught at her mind and spun there long after the tent was empty and given over to darkness.

With a muffled groan, Ren swung her legs over the edge of her cot and stood in one fluid, rather harried motion. Barefoot, she walked blindly toward the source of the breeze, hands held in front of her. There should be a table and a lamp near the entrance…

The back of her hand swept across the table and hit the lamp with the jangled thwack of metal parts against glass. With a squeak she lunged forward, the fingers of both hands splayed to catch the lamp, and breathed a sigh of relief when she snagged the handle. Extra points for not waking Akiko.

She felt around gingerly until a small matchbook on the table grazed her skin, then took both through the heavy tarp into the night.

It was a new moon. No wonder it was so terribly dark…but when Ren stepped outside the tent, she smiled.

Stars exploded across the sky, and their cold light afforded enough that Ren didn't feel the lantern necessary, after all. Instead, she sat in the grass a couple feet from her tent, planted her hands behind her and stared at the sky. She had never seen so many stars…

In San Francisco, light was everywhere. There were no heavy darknesses, so inscrutable nights, and always the saffron glow of the city. Here, a few small, orange orbs glowed from behind thick canvas, but the light didn't make it far enough to intrude on Ren's starry solitude.

The grass, already cooled and damp with gathering dew, felt wonderful against her bare legs, while the subtle shift of wind thinned the heat of the air. Ren sighed deeply, thoughts of titans and the scouts and even the plane crash melting from her mind. In their place, her grandfather's face, the traditional tatami mats of her home, the gentle whirl and light of San Francisco at dusk, before the trolly cars stopped for the night…

"What are you doing?" The voice was harsh enough that Ren jolted a bit and twisted her body around so quickly her back cracked. Her gray eyes were wide against the darkness as they landed on a figure. It was too dark to be sure who, but she thought she recognized the voice…

"Who's there?" She demanded, glad her voice came out strong. It was met by a heavy, irritated sigh, and the figure slouched forward, arms crossed, until she could roughly make out the dark-haired, steel-eyed thug. She glowered. "Oh," she said gruffly and turned back around.

"You should go back inside your tent," Levi responded. He stared down at the girl, her pale hair the faintest silver glow, and narrowed his eyes when the faint glimmer of starlight caught tears on her cheeks.

"In a bit," Ren dismissed, eyes back on the sky. "It's too dark in there, and I can't sleep."

"Of course you can't," Levi grumbled caustically. Ren glowered at him, and he met her eyes unflinchingly, though they appeared strange and light in the star-studded darkness. "If you could sleep well at this point, I would have you committed."

"What about Akiko?" Ren challenged. "She's sleeping just fine."

"She's a kid. For brats fear is a sedative; they can't handle it." Ren rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"Well I'm not a kid, so leave me alone," she said, voice little more than a mumble, and turned away from him once again. Levi released an aggravated sigh. _At least she's speaking coherently…_ For a moment, he wanted to demand answers from her then and there; the desire to glean any information she had burned in his chest. Instead, he swallowed thickly, reminded himself that now was not the time, and stepped closer to the bundled figure on the ground, steel eyes black and hard.

"Go back inside," he demanded again. "Do it of your own will, or I will drag you there myself." Ren heard something serious, bordering on sinister, in his voice, and she looked at him sharply. Levi could detect a hint of fear in her gaze. _Good._

Slowly, she rose to her feet and turned toward the tent. From the back, Levi could see the trails of blood and grime in her tattered blond waves. It was enough to make him grit his teeth—unbrushed, caked with filth…never mind what she had been through.

With a shaky breath through the nose, he attempted to calm his glower, and allowed his eyes to move on.

Unsurprised, Levi noted lean muscles evident under the borrowed tank top. His eyes narrowed; he'd recognized training from the moment he saw her move towards that titan. Her build, while small, was clearly wired from years of training—some form of martial arts, if he had to guess. He knew the signs well—the languid stance, steady confidence, and even the way her hands fluttered every time she felt threatened, her fingers hooked under as though ready to form a fist.

He wondered briefly if she should join a Cadet corps, but immediately dismissed the thought. From what he had seen of her disposition, this girl would not last long. Sentimental; easily attached; unpredictable and impulsive. In short, a complete danger on a battlefield.

"I don't see what your problem is," she complained suddenly, half turning around. Levi's jaw clenched at her jumbled words, though the meaning was clear. He crossed his arms, strangely gratified that, for once, he could look down at someone older than twelve.

"Don't tell me you're so ignorant you don't understand your position," he scoffed. Ren stiffened.

"Enlighten me," she ground out. She had a bad feeling about where this was going.

"I don't know who you are, where you came from, or why you're here," Levi answered, eyebrows raised ever so slightly, like he couldn't believe she missed this obvious issue. "You are my problem."

Ren gaped at him, affronted, but could form no words: he did have a point. Even as she ground her teeth, her anger ebbed, replaced instead by a pensive stare. She still knew hardly anything about where they were, she and Akiko; what this island was really like. But she had a feeling, with things like the titans around, it was nothing like the world she knew.

"I can answer all of those questions," she said. "As long as you answer mine." Levi blinked, surprised by the tone. Even now, he could see the smolder behind light gray eyes, belying her displeasure. Nevertheless, there was the slightest hint of understanding there, as well. _Oh?_ He thought, though his face remained unchanged. _Perhaps she's not a complete idiot…_ He sighed.

"That's going to have to wait," he said firmly. "For the last time, go to bed. The day tomorrow will start before dawn—earlier than you're probably comfortable with—and no one has time to deal with you at the moment." He ignored her indignant bristle at the words 'deal with.' "We'll question you properly once we get inside Wall Rose."

Their standoff was brief, but palpable, as light eyes bored challengingly into steel ones. Levi had almost no reaction to Ren's fierce glare, but couldn't help be slightly impressed that she held her ground with him even for those few seconds. Then again, she knew nothing of his reputation, and had perhaps less reason than his subordinates to fear him.

At last the girl turned away and, with a huff, marched back into her tent. Levi curled his lip when he realized she had forgotten her lantern and box of matches in the damp grass. Careless; the matches were probably too wet to be useful anymore.

As he thought; he sincerely disliked this strange alien.

ΩΩ

 _He wasn't kidding when he said 'before dawn'…_

The proverbial alarm—an overexcited Hange bursting into the tent—had accosted the girls so early the sun probably hadn't even considered clearing the horizon, and to Ren's utter irritation, Hange remained looming in the darkness until both she and Akiko stiffly rose from bed. Only once they were swaying on their feet, shivering in the pre-dawn chill, did she cheerfully inform them they had ten minutes to change before their tent would be taken down.

Ren's face felt puffy, eyes scratchy with sleep and sleeplessness. As she silently reached for the clothes Hange had left on her bed, she was preoccupied by that uncanny sense of having dreamed, despite her blank memories of slumber.

She fumbled with the pants—long enough she'd have to roll the hems a couple times, with far too many buckles. It was the first time in three years she had woken up without remembering her dreams…for some reason, she found that more disturbing than her customary nightmares.

"Ren." She turned at Akiko's groggy voice to find the girl in nothing but her underwear and borrowed tank top, holding up the clothes Hange had left her. The tired, dark eyes met Ren's, face wry. "There's no way this is going to fit." Ren grimaced at the white shirt, nearly long enough to hit Akiko's knees. _Mine aren't any better,_ she thought, pulling on her own peach button-up and rolling up the sleeves several times.

"Bear with it," she told Akiko tiredly. "It's better than what we had on yesterday." Those clothes, she guessed, had probably been burned—based on Levi's murderous expression when he'd seen them.

"The shirt is okay," Akiko agreed, fumbling with the last button as the long sleeves got in the way. "It's the pants I'm worried about. I think they'll fall off…"

"Hmm…" Ren walked over, corrected where Akiko had missed a button and rolled up her sleeves for her before holding up the pants. Sure enough, it seemed that even with the belt, they probably wouldn't stay up on Akiko's small waist. "Wear these." She held up the cotton shorts she'd borrowed from Petra for sleeping. On her, they were comfortable (perhaps they might have been a bit snug on Petra); on Akiko, Ren estimated they would be slightly baggy, like gym shorts.

It only took a minute before both girls were dressed, and Ren was left holding a lank strand of blond hair away from her face by two fingers.

"You look like you're holding a rat by the tail." Ren turned, face pulled in disgust, to find Hange standing in the now-lit entrance of the tent. Dawn light flooded in from behind, leaving her a silhouette.

"That's what I feel like," Ren grumbled. "My hair is so gross…" She knew it was a little silly, to be worried about the state of her hair under the circumstances. Why should some blood and grime matter when they could be dead an hour from now? Still…she couldn't deny that the feeling bothered her.

"Here." Ren dropped her hair in surprise as Akiko tapped on her shoulder and held out one hand, palm up. "I had a couple in my pocket." With a grateful smile, Ren accepted the black hair elastic, and breathed a sigh of relief when her hair was in a dark blond, scraggly knot on top of her head.

"So much better!" she exclaimed happily. She wasted no time pulling Akiko's dark, silky hair into a high pony tail before taking the girl's hand and marching forward to Hange. "Let's move out."

"It's great that you're so chipper now!" Hange applauded slowly. Then her characteristic, somewhat crazed smile dropped from her face. The sudden change was uncanny, to say the least. With a short sigh through her nose, she grabbed both girls' hands and pulled them from the tent. Ren was only slightly surprised to find that, already, four soldiers stood at the corners of the thing and tore it down right on Akiko's heals.

"Are we going back in that wagon?" Akiko asked, dragged along.

"Not today," Hange said. "You'll ride tandem with me," she wrapped one long arm around Akiko's shoulders. "And you, Ren, will double with Petra."

Ren tripped, but the older brunette kept her upright with a firm grip on her upper arm, and didn't even slow as Ren scrabbled to regain her footing. _Ride a horse?!_

"W-why?" She managed to stutter. Hange's glasses glinted as the sun finally crested the horizon, casting long shadows throughout the camp. The light seemed to increase the vibrant tension in Hange's form, and she upped their pace toward the trees where the horses were tied.

"Because I assume you can't actually ride a horse."

"No, why do I have to ride at all?" Ren corrected impatiently. "Why can't we sit in the wagon again?" She couldn't tell what bothered her more—the act of riding a horse, or the resulting separation from her self-assigned charge. Hange didn't spare her a glance.

"Today will be different than yesterday," she said, tone completely serious. Ren blinked rapidly, memories of their hurried dash across the greenery vivid in her mind, along with the soul-sinking, mind-rattling footsteps of the titans. "We can't go that slowly through Wall Maria, or we'll all be eaten. So we can't afford to weigh down the wagon. It'll be faster with everyone on horseback, and you two are light enough you won't make a difference as long as you ride with one of us girls." She winked.

The wink was the most disturbing part of the whole idea, including the titans.

"It's fine, Ren," Akiko muttered, slightly out of breath. The small girl was shorter than Hange by probably a full foot, and had to jog to keep up with the clipped pace. "If it makes us faster…" She didn't have to finish; Ren knew full-well what awaited them should their pace deteriorate. She grimaced.

"Ah," Hange sighed happily. "I love hearing you two speak your native language!" The interruption was so out of keeping with the nature of their conversation, and Hange's previously serious countenance, that Ren actually snorted. Even Akiko, who had yet to smile even once since the plane crash, had a twinkle in her eye.

"Fine," Ren said at last to Akiko in Japanese before turning back to Hange. "Please take care of Akiko," she said earnestly, and added a light smile at the end. "If we both live through today, you'll get to hear plenty more Japanese." The older woman nodded, warmth visible in her gaze, before all three of them stopped, and she clapped a heavy hand down on Ren's shoulder. It hurt; Ren was surprised by how large Hange's hands were.

"Don't worry," Hange smiled, revealing a set of slightly long canines. It was a little frightening. "You've just given me all the incentive I could ever need."

"There you are!" The soft voice was lightly reprimanding, and Ren turned to see the coppery hair and amber gaze of Petra, standing with a tall gray gelding. She absently rubbed its nose with one hand while she sent Hange a reproving glance. "We were supposed to have mounted up by now. What took you?"

"Probably my fault," Akiko mumbled, though no one could understand her. Ren smiled wryly.

"Trying to find clothes that fit Akiko," she said to Petra and gestured to the cotton shorts. "Thanks for these, by the way. Looks like they're the only things that won't fall off her." Petra looked doubtful and put one hand on her hip.

"Hardly practical for riding," she complained, and met Akiko's gaze. "You'll probably end up with some painful chafing since they're shorts…" Ren cringed and translated, apologetically, to Akiko. She hadn't even thought of that.

"I'll manage," the girl said bravely with a shrug, and Petra helped her mount Hange's chestnut stallion. Ren watched with a rueful smile; she kept thinking of Akiko as a delicate little girl she had to take care of. Yet it seemed the 15-year-old was handling herself better than her 19-year-old counterpart.

Especially where horses were concerned.

"Here, climb on." Ren turned to find Petra on the gray gelding, holding out a hand. She swallowed thickly, a cold sweat breaking out on her palms and hairline. The horse pranced in place, anxious, and Ren couldn't help but flinch a bit. Its dark, heavy-lashed eyes met hers, nostrils flaring in a snort.

"I can't believe I'm supposed to ride that…" Ren mumbled to herself in Japanese. Petra must have understood the tone, and Ren's petrified expression, because she laughed and drew the horse up so she could forcedly grab Ren's hand at the wrist.

"It's alright," she said, and pulled Ren up behind her to instinctively wrap both arms around the ginger's waist. Petra squeaked a little. "Loosen your arms, please…" she gasped. Hesitantly, Ren obeyed.

She suspected it was a particularly nasty streak of the horse that it took off the moment she forced herself to relax.

They took off in what Ren found a rather complex formation, involving multiple lines, each divided into flanks and parties. To Ren's great displeasure, she and Petra were including in the middle right flank, while Hange took Akiko across to the middle, toward the back. Though Ren was glad Akiko would be in such a safe position, she gritted her teeth at the separation. Not that she had the chance to complain around her state of panic.

During the first thirty minutes, Petra had to pry Ren's arms from her torso at least three times. She'd never met someone so terribly afraid of horses. _Perhaps she's never seen one..?_

As it happened, Ren had seen many horses…from the safety of her television. Never in real life; and certainly she'd never ridden one. _Were you ever going to teach me this, grandfather?_ she had to wonder. It seemed a glaring error in her otherwise uncanny preparation.

Within the first hour, they passed through Wall Maria.

Ren was grateful when the contents of Wall Maria proved distracting from the bone-deep ache in her thighs and hips, and the panic in her chest with every movement of the creature beneath her tense form.

"What happened here?" Her death-grip subconsciously loosened (to Petra's intense relief) as her gray eyes took in the crumbled houses and debris-strewn town. Instead, it was Petra's hands that tightened, blanching her knuckles against the reigns.

"Titans," the ginger answered shortly, amber eyes glued in front of her and a scowl twisted into her brow. It was the first time Ren had seen the gentle woman look so angry.

"…how'd they get through the wall?" Ren risked the question, truly incredulous as she twisted back to peer at the massive structure. It was like nothing she'd ever seen; could humans really build such a thing?! _Even titans aren't that massive…_ The creatures had been giant, yes. But this wall had to stand a hundred meters off the ground, and the titans she'd seen had been twenty at best. _Don't tell me there are titans this big!?_

Arms tightened once again around Petra, and for the first time the older woman didn't complain, using the discomfort as distraction and catharsis.

"Right flank!" A shout sounded, and Ren's head whipped to the side. A dark-haired girl perhaps twenty feet away rode at breakneck speed, one hand stretched upward and a look of determined terror frozen on her face. Her outstretched hand held a wide-barreled pistol, and as Ren watched she pulled the trigger. A red flare burst forth with a screech loud enough that Ren flinched, and but a moment later Ren understood why.

The horse, as terrified as its rider, squeezed between two crumbling buildings. Over a rooftop to the right, a massive face peered, expression somehow both gleeful and long suffering.

"A titan!" Ren's voice, to her later shame, came out a mere squeak.

"Look forward." Petra, by contrast, sounded only mildly strained, tone deeper and more somber than Ren had heard her. "Don't get distracted." Ren wondered if perhaps the ginger had learned that lesson the hard way, judging by the sweat on her pale brow.

"Nicol!" From their other side, a young man with prematurely gray hair dashed toward the dark-haired girl. Ren watched, transfixed, as they made eye contact and both nodded. In complete sync, they launched from their horses and sped on wires toward the titan. The man went straight for the twisted face while Nicol spun around to its neck.

" _Hayai_ …" Ren muttered under her breath at their sheer speed. It was over in moments, and the entire formation veered easily away from the falling corpse.

The ride continued like that a fair way. Ren lost count of the titans and the flares, Petra's command the only anchor in her mind. _Look forward._

Ahead of her, she could see other soldiers on horseback, each wearing the same forest-green cloak as Petra and Hange. Ren found her gaze resting on the silver and blue emblem on the back…wings? She hadn't really paid it any mind, before…but as she stared, she wondered what it meant.

"Petra!" A white horse drew level with them, a tall man with ash-blond hair and a pained expression in the saddle. Petra spared him a brief glance.

"What, Oluo?" she asked, curt. The anxious lines in his face deepened.

"Looks like there's a horde up ahead," he said. Ren clamped her teeth against the immediate panic that brought. _A horde?!_

"How far?" Her respect for her riding partner grew by leaps and bounds; Petra didn't even seem phased.

"A couple leagues; we're gonna run smack into them."

"Do the Captain and Commander know?" Oluo's teeth clenched and he nodded.

"Captain says we're running interference." His displeasure was palpable, but nothing compared to the heavy, cold sensation in Ren's limbs.

"What?!" Petra spoke before she could, and gestured with one hand toward her passenger. "I have _cargo_ , Oluo," she growled. Ren didn't even bother feeling insulted; she was essentially mere baggage. Oluo shrugged.

"Leave her on the horse or something." Ren blinked, fear momentarily forgotten in the face of the man's sudden, dark glare at her. Where did that come from? "We can't babysit in this situation." Petra remained silent, and Oluo didn't wait for a response, merely kicked his horse faster and spurred toward where Ren could already see the looming heads of several giants. At least two were taller than she had seen, and her heart sank. She counted four just from here…

"He's just trying to sound tough like the Captain," Petra tried to reassure, though her voice wobbled a bit. "I'll try to stay with you." She didn't bother mentioning what would happen if that proved impossible, and Ren didn't press. They both understood.

If she left Ren in the saddle alone, the foreign teenager probably wouldn't survive.

Ren schooled her countenance, clenched her hands together to stop the shaking, and glued her eyes to the figures that already whirled through the titans, leaving fountains of steaming blood in their wake.

One by one, soldiers hurled themselves into the mix, and Ren was shocked to see no hesitation or fear in their faces, merely the courage of cornered animals: determination with nothing left to lose. What were these people fighting for, that they discarded their lives so easily?

That dark cloak floated through her mind again, with the winged emblem waving like a flag, and suddenly Ren felt tears in her eyes, goosebumps over her skin. _Of course._

In a world where humanity cowered behind walls, wings could only mean one thing:

Freedom.

 **Cheesy, I know. But rather satisfying, in my opinion. Anyway, I have a lack of confidence in this chapter...probably because it took so long to write. And because it's so much longer than my previous chapters.**

 **I'm considering keeping this length as my new standard, though-I've read a couple other fics that have much longer chapters, and I like the pacing. Let me know how you feel about that possibility.**

 **Oh-and a _most_ sincere thanks to all of you who have read, reviewed, favorited and followed this story. Checking those stats can seriously make my day (as much as I tell myself to write for the writing and not for the feedback). But in all seriousness, you guys are wonderful-I appreciate and am honored by your time and attention.**

 **Okay-I'm too tired to be writing lengthy author's notes, haha. Review or PM me if you wanna!**


	11. Impressions

**Hi, everyone! Sorry, it really has been quite some time since last I uploaded anything. This chapter took a while-even though it's not significantly longer or more complicated than others. It just became rather a struggle. As a result, I really hope things aren't too disjointed.**

 **Either way, here it is. I hope it continuation was worth the wait...and I'll try not to take so long on the next chapter, haha.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Edit: Wow-I am so terribly sorry for the weird formatting issues! For anyone who read this in the first few hours it was up, I didn't realize the coding came out like that! Yikes...should all be fixed now (please let me know if there are any further errors, typos, etc.)**

 **Sidenote-up over 1000 views now! Thanks SO very much to all who have read.**

 _Three titans down; another two to go._

Levi landed nimbly atop a giant, steaming head. He clicked his tongue, wiped scalding blood from his hands and the hilts of his swords. His heart hammered, body flooded with adrenaline, though his face remained calm and sharp. With the familiar tug of the wires at his hips, he launched himself onto a nearby rooftop, comfortable with the constriction of the harness over his body and invigorated by the rush of wind against his face.

In times like these, he felt more beast than human, ruthlessly cutting through enemies, thriving on the fast-paced, instinctive tempo of battle. It wasn't that he felt nothing—quite the contrary, he felt _everything_. Every friend, comrade, innocent that had died was fuel that burned in his veins. But the sensation was distant, kept at bay along with his thoughts as he operated on auto pilot and allowed years of training to think for him.

It was only when he paused, between kills, that his mind caught up with his body.

His steel gaze raked over the surrounding area, passing the crushed architecture and searching only for things that moved. He had no time for the inanimate, be it object or dead. Through the buildings he could see the rushed movement of the corps' main body, wagons at the rear. Across the town, a smattering of slow-moving titan heads. Even as he watched, one disappeared below the horizon of crooked, red shingles. He caught the slight blur of green as its attacker returned to a rooftop.

Satisfied that all progressed as it should, he returned his gaze to the titans left from the "horde." He clicked his tongue. _They've multiplied again._ With the addition of a 10-meter blond, they were back up to three.

"Captain!" He spun on his heel to find Petra and Oluo both running toward him across the shingles, cloaks billowing and swords out. His eyes widened a fraction.

"What are you doing here?!" He demanded, voice harsh. His soldiers both drew up short and shared a confused glance.

"Holding off the horde, Captain," Oluo answered, his voice carrying a hint of hesitation. Levi locked eyes with Petra.

"I thought you had an assignment," he growled. The ginger frowned but nodded.

"Yes, sir," she confirmed. "But I was ordered to report here, along with the rest of the elite squad." Her amber gaze flashed, almost imperceptibly, to Oluo, leaving Levi to assume he had relayed the order.

"Who," he commanded of the ash-haired soldier, "gave you such a fucking _stupid_ order?" Oluo gulped, but held Levi's strong gaze.

"Th-the messenger from Squad Seven," he stuttered. Squad seven? If he remembered correctly, that had been Ilse Langnar's squad…he couldn't remember a single person in it, now. _No time…_

"Where's the girl?" He turned to Petra. Her gaze grew serious, with just a touch of guilt.

"Ren and Akiko are with Squad Three," she answered. _Mike's squad._ "Riding with Jacki Finch and Rebecca Korelski. Hange has rejoined Squad Five." Levi nodded, unsurprised at Hange's antics. He could have guessed she couldn't keep herself out of the fight. The new arrangement would work just fine—better, even. What concerned him was the issue of the order. Who in their right mind would have sent Petra and Hange, each with a civilian passenger, into direct line of fire?

A question for later.

He let the issue drop and turned back to the three titans, each ambling forward. _And a fourth…_

Levi felt his blood boil as he caught sight of the newest addition to the group: a 15-meter with dark hair and a blond scout hanging from its mouth. As he and his soldiers looked on, the man plunged one blade into the creature's face…only to receive a hard chomp in retaliation.

Petra and Oluo didn't even have the chance to call after him as Levi shot one hook forward and rocketed toward the scene. He passed two houses in the blink of an eye, fury spurring him on as his grapple finally sped past the offending monstrosity to bury into a heavy stone tower.

He was on the adjacent rooftop before the body hit the ground, Petra and Oluo behind him only a moment later.

"I've called for reinforcements, Captain," Eld announced as he landed beside Petra. Levi nodded, unconcerned. This many titans was nothing for him, especially in the wake of another casualty.

"One on the right," he mumbled, eyes taking stock of the remaining three titans. "Two on the left." He turned. "Petra, assist on the ground," he commanded. "The rest of you, the titan on the right. I'll handle the ones on the left."

"But Captain!" Petra's words were swallowed by the wind as Levi took off. The redhead could do nothing but stare after him for a moment, jaw clenched. She knew he could handle himself…and yet, she couldn't help the choking worry that rose up, every time he launched himself into another outnumbered, impossible situation.

"Let's get these fuckers!" Oluo shouted from behind her as he took off, Eld on his heels. Petra sighed, wishing he'd stop trying to imitate the Captain, and easily guided herself onto the ground. She kicked into a run the moment her heels hit cobbled stone, and made a beeline for the mangled figure on the ground. _Another one_ , she thought, numb. How many soldiers, just like this one, had she run up to on the battlefield? Too many; she couldn't remember faces anymore, just the squelch of intestines under her hands, the gurgle of lungs filled with blood and the rancid smell of the dying.

"Petra!" She had already knelt, blood seeping through her pants, beside the fallen soldier when the voice caught her attention. Her amber gaze snapped up, and a small gasp escaped her lips. She was so surprised she momentarily released pressure on the gaping wound in the soldier beneath her hands.

"Ren?!" The blond girl was racing toward her on foot. Her face was lined with stress, gray eyes wide and flickering in every direction. She limped a bit, feet no doubt chafing in the borrowed boots, and her shirt had come untucked from the too-long pants, white ends blood-stained and hanging to her mid-thighs.

"Oh my god…" Ren was so shocked by the sight of the dying soldier that she slipped into a language Petra had not yet heard her speak; slower and more open than what she spoke with Akiko. Petra watched color drain even further from her face as, gingerly, she kneeled on the bloody cobbles. "What happened?"

"Why are you here?" Petra's tone was sharp, and it jolted Ren a bit so that she looked up from the fading brown eyes into lively amber ones. It took a moment to formulate her thoughts, and she swallowed, breath coming fast and rough through her throat.

"She's dead…" she mumbled. "Jackie Finch. There were two titans…the rest of the squad went ahead. I don't—" she swallowed again, this time fighting tears, and looked at her hands, clenched in the ends of her shirt and shaking against her thighs. Petra watched a familiar glaze fall into place in Ren's eyes as she spoke. She'd seen the same expression on countless young soldiers after their first foray into the outside world. For some, it never faded. "I don't know where anyone else is…"

Petra opened her mouth, but could find no words. She didn't bother recognizing how remarkable it was that Ren had survived when her trained companion had not; didn't dwell on the girl's unscathed appearance, or wonder at how she had managed to make it here on foot amidst swarms of titans. If she let her mind dwell on those questions, she would lose focus…just what was this girl?

Petra looked into the wide, dove-gray eyes and hardened her expression.

"Hey!" she snapped, as much to draw Ren from her horrified stupor as get her attention. "Press here." She drew the girl's hand to where her own were pressed against the soldier's cloak, bunched against the spine-deep gash in his midsection. She knew there was no hope for him, and had known since she first knelt by his side. But it was important—for his sake, and even for Ren's—that she pretend otherwise for the moment.

Ren's eyes grew even rounder (something Petra would have assumed impossible), but she complied with a shaky nod of the head.

Blood seeped between her fingers, warm and thick. Ren stared at where it seemed to bloom from the green cloak and stain her pale hands. She had tunnel vision: her hands were all she could see. Pale skin, covered more in sticky red with every passing second. Like molasses, the red line slowly rose to cover her fingertips, then her first knuckle, then her second…

Her heart thudded so hard Ren wouldn't have been surprised if it was actually her own blood on her hands, flowing so vigorously in her panic that it had burst from her body. _Well, but it would steam, I guess_ …she thought bitterly. Her hands shook, both from how hard she was pressing down and from the whirl of nameless emotions she tried to ignore.

The solid, sharp sound of boot heels against stone sounded behind her, but Ren was so focused on the bleeding soldier that she didn't even turn around. Instead her eyes flicked upward to his face…brown eyes dull with heavy lids, the skin already adopting a gray pallor and jaw slack. Blood trailed from the corners of his mouth. _He's going to die_ …

"Captain," Petra voiced, across the body. Her voice shook a little, with more than a trace of sorrow in the hollow tones. The boots behind Ren shifted, took a few clicking steps forward. "I can't stop the bleeding." Ren finally looked up, into Petra's face. Paler than usual, but her amber gaze was steady, warm. Resigned. _I can't stop the bleeding_ …So that was why the blood had covered her hands.

pSuddenly, the boots stopped beside Ren, at the soldier's shoulder.

"Captain…" Ren's attention snapped back to the man as he spoke in a weak voice, husky with pain and slight thickness of blood-filled lungs. Knees cracked lightly as they bent, one settling on the ground while the other steadied an elbow. She risked a glance at Levi's face, and blinked in mild shock. It was the most genuine, non-bored expression she'd seen on the stoic man. His steel eyes sparked, resting with an odd mixture of sobriety and intensity on the fallen man's face.

"What is it?" Levi answered with surprising gentleness. The soldier reached one hand upward, past Ren's face. Bloody fingers reached toward the sky, dull gaze anchored somewhere past the blue, as though he saw something they couldn't.

"Did…Did I help human kind?" he asked. Ren's heart clenched and she felt a burn in the back of her throat. "Am I going to die…without being of any service..?"

To both Ren and Petra's surprise, Levi reached forward to grasp the reaching hand with a soft smack and the squelch of blood. He gripped it firmly in his own, and a strong, almost desperate expression took over his face. Petra marveled at her Captain's dismissal of his own clean-freak tendencies as she watched the blood transferring to his hand, but Ren's eyes were glued to Levi's. She'd never seen such an expression…and it spoke to a story deeper and darker than Ren was sure she ever wanted to know.

"You served well," Levi assured in a voice that wavered with strength and emotion rather than weakness. "And from now on…your commitment will give me strength." Both Petra and Ren stared at the captain, eyes like molten steel boring into the gray-cast face. His voice was husky and low with emotion, and Ren frowned at the half-mad gleam in his eyes as he continued. "I promise you…I will destroy every last titan without fail!"

A line of blood trickled over the base of Levi's thumb, squeezed from between the clasped hands, the larger one gray and slack. Ren thought bleakly that people seemed to become two-dimensional in death, gray like a line sketch.

"Captain," Petra intoned softly when his expression remained vividly trained on his soldier. Ren caught the shimmer of tears leave her eyes to trail down milk-pale cheeks. "He's gone."

All at once the light left Levi's face and he turned to Petra with an almost childish expression of concern.

"Do you think he heard me till the end?" he asked. Ren frowned. She'd had such a clear image of this man, from the moment she met him: cold, bored, unrelenting. A bit of a thug…she'd thought of him as some kind of mafia man, almost.

And yet, in the short span of the past five minutes, he had completely debunked her assumptions, and her curiosity was piqued in spite of herself.

His expression, his emotion, had opened a window into his past that her mind couldn't close, and she found herself questioning this new world all over again. She'd been caught up in her own trial, her own fear and confusion…what had the people here really been through? How did characters like Levi and Hange arise from the bleak, hopeless existence of a timeline dominated by monsters?

Did she really want those answers?

"Yes…I'm sure he did." Petra spoke, voice still soft and cheeks still wet with tears. She directed her warm gaze to the soldier's face, eyes closed, mouth still open and bloody but relaxed. "Look at him. He looks peaceful in death."

For a long moment, all three simply stared at the dead man—Petra gently crying and Ren's mind buzzing with questions. Levi's eyes slowly hardened, and returned to what Ren had become familiar with.

"That's good," he said simply, then rose to his feet and turned to stare down the street, back the way they came. Petra reached forward and began slowly tearing the winged emblem from the soldier's right jacket shoulder. Ren, who had been staring, deep in thought, at Levi, cut her gaze toward the gentle tearing sound.

"What are you doing?" she asked, slightly aghast. Petra offered a thin smile.

"We can't bring all the bodies back with us," she explained, voice dark and sad. "So this is how we remember them." That truth hit harder than Ren cared to consider, and spoke volumes about the way people lived here, the horrors these soldiers had seen.

Somehow, she had convinced herself that things would get better once they were inside the mysterious wall Rose. But as she observed Petra and Levi, she had the sinking feeling that would not be the case.

 _I want to go home…_ The thought drifted through her mind, unbidden, and Ren had to bite back tears. Her heart clenched painfully, and she wondered how long she and Akiko could really survive in a world as harsh as this. _Akiko_! Upon remembering her companion, a thrill of panic ran through Ren's veins, and she hopped to her feet fast and suddenly enough that Petra threw her a look of alarm.

"I need to find Akiko." Petra nodded, unsurprised by the urgent tone, and made to stand up. The sharp rhythm of hooves against cobbled stone drew their attention past Levi, where Commander Erwin led a group of soldiers toward them.

"Levi!" he called, effectively gaining his captain's wandering attention. Ren saw tension return to the captain's shoulders as he turned, and even from the back his body radiated with the anticipation of battle. "We're pushing on. We need to get back to the wall." Erwin's voice was firm, his blue eyes gleaming down his nose at Levi. His expression left no room for argument…but Levi pushed the envelope, anyway.

"Pushing on.." he repeated. It only took a moment for his brows to knit heavily together, the metal in his gaze hard and glinting once again. "There's more we could do inside wall Maria," he growled. "Are you going to let my men die in vain?" The statement was weighted, all the more poignant with the dead man on the ground behind him, but Erwin didn't so much as bat an eyelash.

"The titans have begun moving north as a group," he said with the same firm, heavy tone. Ren frowned a little—was that significant? Apparently so, because Petra and Levi both tensed, the ginger even releasing a sharp sound of dismay.

"It's a repeat of five years ago…something's wrong in town." A heavy silence. Levi looked toward the wall so fast his onyx hair whipped across his brow. "The wall may have been destroyed." _Destroyed_?

Ren stared toward the towering wall in the distance—not Wall Maria behind them, but Wall Rose, on the other side of town. Could such a massive thing really be destroyed? Yes, the titans she'd seen had been large, terrifying…but surely even they couldn't breach such technology-defying architecture.

And yet…as she looked closer, Ren could detect the faint billow of smoke rise over its edge. No…it wasn't thick or dark enough to be smoke. _Steam_ …Her eyes widened, and she felt nameless panic override her thought process. Beside her, Petra accepted the reigns of a spare horse from a soldier behind Erwin. Levi did the same, and Petra gestured for Ren to mount in front of her.

They were gearing up to run straight toward that wall…toward steam that could only have one source: titans. What kind of scene would they find there? From the bleak, colorless faces of the soldiers around her, Ren had a few good guesses.

Ren gripped the rounded horn of the saddle so hard the flesh beneath her fingernails blanched white, and Petra urged their steed forward with the rest of the corps, breaking into a fierce gallop that sent thunder through the broken town.

 _I have to find Akiko…_ Ren thought as she braced herself against their speed, the hurling wind and the steady onslaught of fear. When they got through that wall, Ren could only imagine the brutal, violent scene that awaited. There was no question in her mind that she and Akiko would be swallowed, lost to the turmoil. Whether they survived, she suspected, would depend entirely on her ability to get herself and her charge to whatever safety presented itself…regardless of who got trampled or abandoned in the process.

 _I guess that's just how people live, here,_ she pondered, grim. Staying alive—keeping loved ones safe—was difficult and unlikely enough. This island had been thrown back to the most basic laws of the living: survival of the fittest. With predators like titans, no one had time for much more than themselves.

"When we get to the wall, you'll have to join the civilian evacuation," Petra said into Ren's ear, interrupting her train of thought.

"What?" The ginger's voice was weak against the whistle of wind in the blond's ears, and Ren could hardly make out the words. But then, maybe she simply didn't want to make them out.

"If the wall has really been breached, there will be evacuation boats headed further in," Petra explained, voice stronger. "We're going to be too occupied to take care of you, so we'll leave you and Akiko with the civilians." Ren bit her tongue—it was obvious by the strain in Petra's voice that the decision was both mandatory and unpleasant, leaving Ren with the distinct impression that her odds of survival were even lower than she had previously considered.

She didn't voice her worries, merely nodded. This changed nothing—her determination to keep herself and Akiko alive was the same, and if she was honest, their chances didn't even change that much. At least this way they stood perhaps a better chance of running away.

The rest of the ride proceeded in silence. They were moving too fast, with too much urgency, and the palpable weight of trepidation silenced any words they might have shared. All too quickly, they were at the wall.

Looking forward, Ren forgot about the unsettling horse beneath her. She forgot about the troops, and evacuation, and even, for an instant, she forgot about Akiko. The wall that loomed before them blotted out everything—it completely monopolized her sight and her thoughts. _What on earth could have done this…_

The thought was numb, and her brain could hardly even consider the answer. It was still hung up on comprehending the cause: the massive, towering gate was edged, splintered, with spiderweb cracks that radiated out in a kind of grim halo. Chunks of stone had crumbled from the edges, and lay piled in the grass at the gate's mouth. These were all mere sideline details.

Blocking the opening with was rounded, darker stone. A boulder at least fifty feet in circumference—much too large for any titans she had seen, not that they would put it there, anyway.

And it was on the other side of the wall.

 **Again, hope that had a decent flow to it...I sort of ended up writing this in stages, and couldn't really decide on a place to end it. But that's how it goes, I guess.**

 **Also, as I'm sure you readers are aware, this fic will eventually become full-blown LevixOC romance. I intend rather a slow burn-I want to keep this an adventure story, as well. But the details about how I hash out this romance are far from set in stone (I'm mostly just deciding things chapter by chapter).**

 **So that being said, I would really love if you guys could let me know if there are any particular Levi romance scenes you're fond of! (A few I imagine including are training scenes, maybe some fluff with the squad, and at least one or two in which Ren is stupid and Levi yells at her). If you have anything you'd really like to see, don't hesitate to leave requests and suggestions!**

 **Thanks-have a good Friday and a great weekend :)/strong/p**


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